OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), which then tumbled into a ravine killing at least nine people, police said Sunday.

The attack came around an hour before Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term on Sunday evening in the capital New Delhi.

“Initial reports suggest that militants were waiting there in an ambush and they fired on the bus,” police officer Mohita Sharma told AFP.

“The driver lost control and fell into the deep gorge. Nine people died and 23 were injured.”

The crash happened near Reasi town, in the south of the disputed territory, as the bus was returning from a popular Hindu shrine in the area.

Opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the “gruesome terror attack” in a post on social media platform X.

Modi’s “chest-thumping propaganda of bringing peace and normalcy... rings hollow”, he said.