The fatal incident occurred in Chattha Pal area, some 150 kilometres southeast of Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK.
Muhammad Nawaz, a local police official confirmed that 16 people were killed and several others wounded.
He said overloading and over-speeding resulted in the accident as the van driver lost control while taking a sharp turn on a 300-feet high mountainous terrain.
The injured people have been shifted to a nearby hospital where at least four of them are said to be in critical condition, Nawaz said.