Special IAF plane departs for India with bodies of 25 pilgrims killed in tragic bus accident in Nepal

PTI, KATHMANDU, AUG 24, 2024 :  A special Indian Air Force flight with the bodies of 25 Indian pilgrims killed in a tragic bus accident in Nepal left for Jalgaon in Maharashtra on Saturday after completing all formalities. The bodies of two deceased would be reaching Maharajgunj in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday evening.

At least 25 pilgrims, all from Maharashtra, and two people from Uttar Pradesh who were in Nepal for a 10-day tour, were killed and 16 others injured after their bus veered off the highway and fell into the fast-flowing Marsyangdi river at Abu Khaireni in Tanahun district in central Nepal on Friday.

The deceased and the injured were part of a group of 104 pilgrims on a visit to Nepal in three buses. Indian Embassy sources said here that Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Raksha Nikhil Khadse and Sanjay Savkare, a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Bhusawal constituency, arrived at Kathmandu earlier in the morning by a regular flight to oversee the return of the victims and survivors.

The IAF special flight directly reached Bharatpur, which is about 170 km from here. “The Minister met the injured at a hospital in Kathmandu and then went to Bharatpur by a domestic flight. The IAF flight with Khadse, Savkare, and 25 bodies departed from Bharatpur for India,” the sources said.

“Will reach Jalgaon airport by 7 pm along with the mortal remains of the 25 persons from Jalgaon killed in a tragic bus accident in Nepal. Request all the bereaved families to cooperate and not let any inconvenience (happen),” Khadse posted on X ahead of the departure from Bharatpur, where the post-mortem for the bodies was carried out.

Bodies of two people—the bus driver and his assistant of the fateful bus that met with the accident—and 51 people from the remaining lot are slated to reach later Saturday evening by road at Maharajganj, a district in Uttar Pradesh state, located near the Indo-Nepal border. “They will be then taken to Gorakhpur under police protection and supervision of the additional district magistrate,” officials said there and added that the district administration has made food and other necessary arrangements for all the passengers at the border.

The reason for the accident is not yet known. The accident site lies on the national highway, some 90 km west of Kathmandu. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister National Relief Fund for the next of kin of each deceased in the mishap in Tanahun district, Nepal. The injured would be given Rs 50,000, it was announced by the PMO on X.

Earlier in the day, the post-mortem of all the 27 Indians was carried out at the Bharatpur Hospital in the Chitwan district of the Bagmati province, Home Ministry spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said. Khadse, who was accompanied by Savkare, along with Nepal's Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, visited the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital at Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, and met the 16 injured passengers undergoing treatment there.

“Thanked Hon'ble HM and Govt of Nepal for the prompt and timely assistance provided for the search and rescue operations as also for the treatment of the injured,” Khadse said in a post on X after the hospital visit. She also expressed appreciation for the Indian embassy in Nepal for providing “necessary assistance and coordination on the ground with Nepalese authorities.”

Of the 16 injured, the condition of one is said to be critical, while others are stable, according to hospital sources. “As tourists coming from India on a bus met with an accident, some people have lost their lives while the lives of some others could be saved with the hard work and dedication of our security personnel including from the Nepal Army, the Nepal Police, and the Armed Police Force, who got involved in the rescue works soon after the incident,” Lekhak told journalists after inspecting the hospital ward.