Seven of family dead as bus rams into pilgrims sleeping on roadside in UP

Seven of a family, including three children, were killed in the early hours of Friday in Bulandshahr district when a bus rammed into a group of pilgrims who were on their way back from the Vaishno Devi shrine and were sleeping on the roadside, police said.

They said the driver of the bus was on the run.

Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said the victims, who were residents of Chandpa in Hathras district, had gone on a pilgrimage to the shrine along with some relatives and other villagers.

While returning, they got off from the bus in Narora in Bulandshahr and slept on the road along Gandhi Ganga Ghat. At around 4 am, another bus that was also carrying pilgrims crushed the victims to death, the official said.

Narora is at a distance of over 770 km from Katra where the Vaishno Devi shrine is located.

After receiving information about the incident, Dibai Circle Officer Vikram Singh and Dibai Sub-Divisional Magistrate Sanjay Kumar reached the spot.

Meanwhile, the locals gathered there and protested against the accident. Police talked to the people and sent the bodies for postmortem.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the kin of the deceased.

He said those responsible should be punished strictly.

The deceased were identified as Phoolwati (65), Mala Devi (32), Sheela Devi (35), Yogita (5), Kalpana (4), Renu (22) and Sanjana (4).