At least 17 people, including five women and five children, were killed early on Monday in a head-on collision between a jeep and a truck near Punjab's Moga town, 170 km from Chandigarh, police said.
The victims, who were devotees from Daulatpura village in Moga district, were returning from a shrine in Nanaksar near Jagraon town.
The accident took place on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur highway around 2 am.
Police said 14 people were killed on the spot while three others died in a hospital in Moga.
"All the occupants travelling in the jeep were killed in the accident," a police official at the site said.
Police said the speeding truck, which was trying to overtake another vehicle, collided head-on with the jeep.
The truck driver fled the spot, leaving his vehicle behind.