Twenty pilgrims, including 15 women, were killed and 50 injured when an over-loaded mini truck rolled down a 100 feet deep gorge near village Nari on the Hoshiarpur-Dharmsala road in the wee hours on Thursday.
A day before the eighth round of talks, the government and the farmer unions stuck to their respective positions on Thursday -- the agitating farmers took out tractor rallies to press their demand for rollback of new agri laws and the Centre asserted it is ready to consider any proposal other than their repeal.
If the protests have cemented the ties between the peasantry and the traders, the political implications for the BJP might become too serious to be disregarded because its core base was made up of the urban Khatri merchants.
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