Traffic accident in eastern India kills 18 Hindu pilgrims

By AFP 29 July 2025, 9:47 am

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Indian paramilitary force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bus that was carrying Hindu pilgrims which collided with a transport truck at Deoghar, about 268 kilometers (167 miles) from Ranchi, in the Indian eastern state of Jharkhand, July, 29, 2025. (AP Photo)

At least 18 people were killed in eastern India after a bus ferrying Hindu pilgrims collided with a truck loaded with cooking gas cylinders, officials say.

Visuals from the site in Jharkhand state show the mangled wreckage of the bus, with its rear portion almost entirely burnt.

Local lawmaker Nishikant Dubey says the pilgrims were traveling to a Hindu shrine to celebrate the sacred month of Shravan, coinciding with the onset of the monsoons in the subcontinent.

“18 devotees lost their lives due to a bus and truck accident,” Dubey says on social media.

The pilgrims were carrying holy water from the Ganges to offer to the Hindu god of destruction Lord Shiva.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expresses his “deepest condolences to the families of the devotees who lost their lives.”

“The road accident in Jharkhand’s Deoghar is extremely tragic,” his office says on social media.

Tens of thousands of people die in road accidents in India every year, according to official data.