Himachal mishap victims cremated in Hoshiarpur

Almost the entire village of Ahrana Kalan attended the funeral of the five youth who had drowned in a Kundli Har tehsil rivulet of Himachal Pardesh’s Kangra district on Sunday.

Almost the entire village of Ahrana Kalan attended the funeral of the five youth who had drowned in a Kundli Har tehsil rivulet of Himachal Pardesh’s Kangra district on Sunday.

Four victims were cremated on Monday and Jagdeep Singh on Tuesday, on the arrival of his brother from abroad. The families are finding it hard to reconcile and the survivors are too shaken to talk about it. Their parents have kept them off the media. Jatinder Singh, who was in the group that took the ill-fated journey, had just started to speak when villagers took him away. Arshdeep, another survivor and first to jump into the water, said a close shave with death had jolted him.

Villagers said victims Dheeraj and Deepak were the only sons of their parents. Victim Makhan was the eldest and the only married guy of the group. He leaves behind two children. His wife, Harbans Kaur, says these pilgrims were aboard Makhan’s tractor-trailer.

Cabinet minister Sohan Singh Thandal, who attended the funeral, said he had requested the chief minister for all possible help to the affected families. “We have asked the district administration to prepare a report based on inputs from Kangra,” he said.