Nine kanwarias killed in road accidents

LUCKNOW/DEHRADUN - Nine kanwarias, devotees of Lord Shiva, were killed in accidents in Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Uttarakhand early Friday, police said.

Six kanwarias were killed and 25 injured when a speeding bus hit their tractor-trolley in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district while three were killed when a truck in which they were travelling fell into a gorge in Uttarakhand’s Pauri district.

The bus of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) ploughed into the rear portion of the tractor-trolley in the Naangal area, some 350 km from Lucknow.

“The injured kanwarias were admitted to a hospital, where the condition of 10 of them is stated to be critical,” police inspector Nanak Chand told reporters in Bijnor.

“Majority of those killed or injured in the accident are residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district. The devotees were on their way to the holy town of Haridwar,” he added.

In the Uttarakhand accident, 18 people were injured, six critically.

There were 34 people, including the driver, in the truck going from Haridwar to Rishikesh when the accident took place at 7.30 a.m. near Ganga Bhogul village in the district.

Two critically injured people have been referred to a hospital in Dehradun and the rest have been sent to a hospital in Rishikesh.

During the Hindu month of Shravan, thousands of kanwarias walk all the way to Haridwar to collect the water of the Ganga, bring it back home and offer it to their Shiva icons back home.