DHAKA: At least 16 Hindu pilgrims were killed and many more injured Sunday (July 16) in a bus crash in northern India, police said, just days after gunmen shot dead eight worshippers making the same holy visit. 

The bus plunged into a gorge in Jammu and Kashmir, the state where hundreds of Hindus make the annual pilgrimage to a Himalayan cave revered as the abode of the god Shiva, reports the Hindu.

“16 people are now confirmed dead, 19 with serious injuries and eight others with minor injuries,” the state’s police force said in a statement Sunday. 

Some of the worst injured are being airlifted to hospital, while others were taken to local clinics for treatment, police said. 

For the second time in a week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to the pilgrims who died making the holy journey. 

“Extremely pained by the loss of lives of Amarnath Yatris (pilgrims) due to a bus accident in J&K,” the prime minister said, referring to the state by its initials. “My thoughts are with the families of the deceased.” 

The tragedy came as another Hindu pilgrim died Sunday from injuries sustained six days ago when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus full of worshippers.

Tens of thousands of Hindus from all over India travel to Kashmir every year to visit a phallus-shaped ice formation in the Amarnath caves that is worshipped as a symbol of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. 

The caves, which lie 3,900 metres (12,800 feet) high and can only be reached on foot or on horseback, are seen as a symbol of religious unity in the volatile region. 

BDST: 2010 HRS, JULY 16, 2017
AP