Indian authorities to bring bodies of 27 Indians killed in Nepal bus crash

NEW DELHI, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) — The bodies of 27 Indians killed in a bus crash in neighboring Nepal will be brought to India Saturday, officials said.
The accident took place on Friday after a tourist bus from India’s Uttar Pradesh skidded off the highway and plunged into the Marsyangdi river in central Nepal, killing 27 and injuring 16 others.
Twenty-four of the deceased have been identified as pilgrims hailing from the western state of Maharashtra.
“After the post-mortem of bodies, Nepali authorities will hand them over to Indian officials, who will bring them to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh by road. From there, they will be transported to Nashik in a specially arranged Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft and then handed over to their respective families,” an official said.
The ill-fated bus with passengers mostly from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district was heading to the Nepal capital Kathmandu from the mountainous tourist resort of Pokhara. However, it met with an accident in Tanahun district, about 110 km west of Kathmandu. ■