Six pilgrims killed as overloaded mini-truck falls into canal near Ludhiana; looking for more bodies

Chandigarh: At least six pilgrims, comprising two children, were killed and five people have gone missing after an overloaded mini-truck carrying 25 people fell into the swollen Sirhind canal in Punjab’s Ludhiana district, police said on Monday. The accident occurred near the Jagera bridge on the Malerkotla road near Dehlon village on Sunday night.
Divers have been deployed on Monday to fish out the bodies from the canal. Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Jain, Senior Superintendent of Police Jyoti Yadav, local legislator Manvinder Singh Giaspura, among other officials from the police and administration, reached the spot in the morning to oversee the search operation. The police said most of the pilgrims were saved and admitted to nearby hospitals. The pilgrims were returning to their village, Manakwal, after paying obeisance at the famed hilltop Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district.