Thaindian News

By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, June 12 (IANS) Another Indian pilgrim on the yatra to the holy Mt Kailash in Tibet died Friday, travellers returning to Kathmandu from the gruelling overland journey said.

A man, said to be in his 50s, was admitted to a medical clinic in Khasa town on the Nepal-Tibet border but discharged after the doctors said he was beyond help.

“He died while taken towards the Friendship Bridge (that connects Tibet and Nepal) this morning,” said Vidyapati Vyas, a technical consultant from Ahmedabad who was part of a group of Indian pilgrims returning to Kathmandu Friday.

Vyas said the man was from southern India but the group had no more details immediately.

“Their jeep was coming with ours,” the 51-year-old said. “It was stopped at the border point with the Chinese saying they would have to make a deposit of Rs 75,000 at the Chinese embassy to take the body back,” Vyas told IANS.

“The last we saw of them, his wife was weeping at the border.”

Earlier, Nepal’s Teaching Hospital confirmed the deaths of six more Indian pilgrims, including two women. However, pilgrims returning from the journey said they heard rumours of the toll being 10.

Some of the details have yet not reached the authorities in Nepal.

“A 13-year-old girl died around June 4,” said Rajendra Harsh, a finance consultant from Ahmedabad. “She was vomiting near the Dolma Pass.”

Pilgrims returning from the 16-day journey, that is undertaken primarily by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, have horror stories about the way their tour agent allegedly fleeced them.

“There were none of the arrangements mentioned in the brochures,” Harsh said. “There were no doctors with the groups and no medicine.

“There was no food, water or oxygen cylinder,” he complained.