10 Indians killed during Kailash pilgrimage

September 22nd, 2009 JAMMU - One Vaishno Devi pilgrim died and more than 20 others were injured in two separate incidents Tuesday evening, according to reports reaching here. A landslide on the pilgrimage track near Saanji Chhat, one of the stopovers enroute the 13-km track to the shrine, left one person dead.

September 11th, 2009 NOIDA - A student of Amity University was killed Friday when the car he was travelling in was hit by a heavy vehicle on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, police said. According to police, Gurinder Singh, a second year engineering student, was with two other students in the car when it was hit by the heavy vehicle at 8.00 a.m.

August 19th, 2009 DEHRADUN - A series of landslides triggered by incessant rains over the past three days in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand has disrupted the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage, an official said here Wednesday. "Since movement on the Haldwani-Pithoragarh as well as Tanakpur-Pithoragarh roads was suspended on account of the landslides, the 14th group heading for Kailash-Mansarovar had to hold back its journey," the official spokesman told IANS.

August 2nd, 2009 BISHKEK - A pensioner in Kyrgyzstan spent all the money he had saved for Haj pilgrimage to rebuild a dilapidated monument in memory of the victims of World War II, a media report said. Suleiman Turdubayev has been saving money to go for Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia for a long time, Kyrgyz news website, called 24.kg, posted the report on its website last week.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - It has been quite a battle for Anita Manchanda and thousands of other commuters who had to pass near the site of the Delhi Metro accident in south Delhi Monday, with vehicle movement at a crawl due to the traffic diversions. Most people reached their destination several hours late.

July 1st, 2009 DOHA - About sixteen Indians were feared to be among 30 dead in a tragic incident in which as a vessel, 'Damas Victory', hired by a Qatar based oil-firm capsized off the coast of Qatar on Wednesday. The incident took place about two nautical miles off Doha at around 6.30 am local time on Tuesday, the vessel had 35 people including 19 Indians on board.

June 17th, 2009 SRINAGAR - One porter was killed and another injured in a landslide on the Amarnath pilgrimage route in Jammu and Kashmir, while the body of an unidentified pilgrim was recovered near Manigam transit camp, police said Wednesday. Police said the landslide that killed a porter occurred at Railpathri, 5 km ahead of the Baltal base camp Wednesday.

June 14th, 2009 KATHMANDU - "We will take you on a four-star tour of Mt. Kailash and the Mansarovar," a New Delhi-based tour operator promised Rajendra Harsh, a 52-year-old financial consultant from Ahmedabad.

June 14th, 2009 KATHMANDU - When she first went on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, joining the tour organised by India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in 1997, Aruna Pratapsinh Rathore, an official with a state enterprise, was impressed by the order and care that characterised the trip. Twelve years later, when the retired deputy director of the Gujarat State Financial Corporation went on a trip to Kailash once again with a private tour operator who has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kathmandu, she found it a hellish experience.

June 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - "No medical test is mandatory... private tour operators are not as strict as government," said the private tour operator in the capital that is in the news for its callous treatment of its clients and leaving them in the lurch during the pilgrimage to Mt.

June 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Even as a 54-year-old man, officially the seventh Indian pilgrim to have died while attempting the gruelling Kailash Yatra in Tibet, was cremated in Kathmandu Saturday, two fellow travellers had seizures and were rushed to hospital, pilgrims returning to the Nepal capital said. P. Mohan, a resident of Madurai, was cremated at the Arryaghat in the Pashupati temple premises in the presence of his grieving wife Kalyani Mohan, their three sons and other relatives who had flown to Kathmandu for the last rites.

June 11th, 2009 KATHMANDU - As details start to come in about the casualties among Indians who went on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and the Mansarovar lake, the picture emerges of appalling ignorance about the weather conditions in Tibet and the hardship the land journey entails. "We were shocked to see an 83-year-old woman going on her own," said a pilgrim who identified himself as Ravi and who was part of a group of people from south India that returned to Kathmandu from the gruelling journey this week with one casualty -- the 83-year-old woman who was not escorted by any relatives or friends.

June 11th, 2009 KATHMANDU - With the death of six Indian pilgrims during the gruelling overland pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and the Mansarovar lake in Tibet, Nepal's concerned tourism board Wednesday issued a travel advisory for travellers, asking them to get acclimatised first. "(Some travellers) face difficulties due to their age, health and (lack of)acclimatisation," the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said in a press statement Wednesday.

June 10th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Thirty-three stranded Indian pilgrims returning from Kailash and Mansarovar have been evacuated to Nepalganj on Wednesday. With this, forty-seven pilgrims have been evacuated.

April 25th, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) is reportedly concerned that many Malay Indians may not have the financial means to take up the 15 per cent quota of Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) units allocated to the community. Party president S.