Bodies of 17 pilgrims who died in a bus mishap in central Nepal yesterday reached their native places in Surendranagar district of Gujarat tonight.
The people in the entire Wadhvan tehsil (majority of victims are from Wadvan town), some 120 km from here, today voluntarily observed a bandh as a tribute to the deceased.
"An Indian Air Force aircraft brought the bodies of pilgrims alongwith the injured here," Gujarat health minister Nitin Patel said at the city airport this evening.
"All the bodies have been sent to respective native villages in Wadhvan tehsil. Six of the 22 injured have been taken to the city civil hospital as recommended by the doctors here," said Patel, who received the aircraft here as it landed at around 5.30 pm after airlifting the bodies and the survivors from Nepal.
Other 43 pilgrims who had not sustained any major injuries have been sent to Wadhvan with the help of district administration, added Patel.
Mayor Minakshi Patel, Ahmedabad district collector Rajkumar Beniwal, BJP MLA from Wadhvan Varsha Doshi and Congress MLA from Danilimda Shailesh Parmar were present at the airport when the IAF's IL-76 aircraft landed.
The bus carrying 45 pilgrims, returning to Gorakhpur in India after a visit to Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, plunged 100 metres down from the hilly road at Naubise village in Dhading district of Nepal yesterday.
Gujarat government has announced a compensation of Rs four lakh each to the families of the 17 deceased.
Ten of the deceased were from Wadhvan town, two each from Surendranagar and Dhanghdra and three from Memka, Kotharia and Kundla villages, said the MLA Varsha Doshi.
Around ten thousand people had gathered at Wadhvan hearing the news of arrival of bodies.
