Twenty-Six Badrinath Pilgrims Drown

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DEHRA DUN, INDIA, June 16: Twenty-six pilgrims were drowned and six injured, two of them seriously, when a private bus in which they were returning from Badrinath shrine skidded off the road and plunged into the Alaknanda river at Baldora area in Chamoli district last night, police said today. The bus, going to Hardwar from Badrinath, was carrying 32 pilgrims including 17 women when the mishap occurred at Baldora near Vishnuprayag area. The pilgrims were mostly from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. The bus, belonging to a private travel agency in Hardwar, had completely submerged into the swirling waters of the Alaknanda, a tributary of Ganga, Mishra said.