Tragedy hit the kanwar yatra on the first Monday of the holy month of Shrawan when four kanwariyas were killed in two separate road accidents reported from Amroha and Muzaffarnagar respectively.
In Amroha, agitated by the death of their colleagues in a road accident, hundreds of kanwariyas staged a protest and went on rampage, damaging Roadways buses. They were, however, pacified by senior officers who rushed to the spot along with a heavy police force.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also expressed concern of the deaths of kanwariyas in road mishap. In a tweet, the official handle of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said: “#UPCM @myyogiadityanath has expressed deep grief over the loss of lives due to road accident in Amroha district. Praying for peace to the departed souls, the chief minister expressed his condolences to the bereaved families. The chief minister has directed the officials of the district administration to provide proper treatment to the injured.”
After the chief minister's tweet, the Amroha district administration and senior officials swung into action and deployed force at different places on National Highway 9. The officers closed the entry of heavy vehicles on Delhi-Lucknow National Highway 9 and made Delhi-Lucknow National Highway one way for the movement of small vehicles so that the safety of the kanwariyas was ensured.
According to reports from Amroha, two kanwariyas were killed when a UP Roadways bus of Kaushambi depot hit their motorcycle early on Monday.
Police identified the deceased as Moradabad residents Rahul and Gaurav who were returning from Brajghat after collecting holy water as part of the kanwar yatra rituals, the officials said.
'The deceased were returning to Moradabad when a Roadways bus hit their motorbike at around 4:30 am near Nilikheri bridge. The men were immediately hospitalised, but they passed away while undergoing treatment,” the station house officer of Kotwali Dedauli police station in Amroha, said. No one else was injured in the accident, he added.
Soon after the accident, people present at the spot pelted stones at the bus, but the situation was quickly brought under control, the police said.
In another mishap in Muzaffarnagar, two more kanwariyas were killed after their motorcycle was hit by a mini truck near Rampur crossing on Delhi-Haridwar national highway on Monday, police said.
Saurabh (40) and Yogesh (30), residents of Faridabad, were on their way to Haridwar to fetch water from the river Ganga when the accident occurred, Purchhapar police station SHO Ashutosh Kumar said.
The bodies were sent for autopsy and a probe into the accident was on, police said.
A case was registered against the unidentified driver of the mini truck who escaped after abandoning the vehicle. The mini truck has been seized.
The kanwar yatra began on Thursday, after a gap of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is scheduled to end on July 26.