Banihal/Jammu: A fresh landslide hit Kishtwari Pather near Banihal in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban district which claimed the life of a labourer and disrupted the traffic flow on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway which is already closed for the past three days.

The construction worker has been identified as Deshpaul (31), a resident of Uttar Pradesh. Deshpaul was hit by the landslide outside his company headquarters near Seri in Ramban district around 8.30 am, police said.

They said the deceased was moving towards the mess of the company for breakfast when the incident occurred. His body was retrieved and shifted to hospital for postmortem.
An official of the traffic department said the 270-km long highway, the only all weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, remained closed for the fourth day following a fresh landslide at Kishtwari Pather near Banihal. 

“The restoration work is in progress and will take some time,” he said. The traffic on the strategic highway was suspended on Monday following multiple landslides triggered by heavy rains at over a dozen places between Ramban and Banihal. 

The highway was cleared for partial one-way traffic on Wednesday but the fresh landslide at Kishtwari Pather blocked the road again, the officials said. 

(With PTI inputs)