BERHAMPUR: A 55-year-old tourist from Ganjam district was killed after a boulder rolled down a hillside and crashed onto the multi-utility vehicle (MUV) in which he was travelling in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as R Himanshu Prasad Rao, a resident of Narayanpur village under Gopalpur police station limits.
Rao, reportedly a former sarpanch of Narayanpur, was travelling with a group of tourists when the boulder detached from the hill at Bamzoo Matan on KP Road and fell on the vehicle. The tourists were travelling from Pahalgam towards Anantnag.
According to information available, the vehicle had six tourists and was being driven by Arif Dilawar Khan, a resident of Pattan in Baramulla district. Rao sustained head injuries and was rushed to the Government Medical College in Anantnag, where doctors started treatment. However, he succumbed to injuries.
Berhampur MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy expressed deep sorrow over Rao’s death and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family. He has taken up the matter with the Jammu and Kashmir administration and the Odisha Resident Commissioner in New Delhi, seeking quick completion of the postmortem, legal formalities and arrangements for transporting Rao’s body to Odisha by air. Panigrahy has also urged the authorities to ensure the safe return of the tourists who were with Rao. News of Rao’s death cast a pall of gloom over Narayanpur and the wider Gopalpur area.