Peshawar, Jul 4 (PTI) Amidst recital of prayers, a large number of Sikhs in Pakistan's Peshawar city on Saturday performed the last rites of 21 pilgrims from the minority community killed in Friday's tragic accident when a passenger train crashed into a van in Punjab province.

At least 22 people, including 21 Sikhs -- 11 men, nine women and a child- returning from Nankana Sahib were killed on Friday when the driver of the van they were travelling in reportedly tried to take a shortcut to avoid a railway crossing and rammed the vehicle into a passenger train at a crossing near Sheikhupura district.

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The last rites of the 21 Sikh pilgrims who died in the accident were performed at a cremation centre in Khairabad Attock in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Several Sikh community leaders, including Member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Sardar Ranjeet Singh, Member of Punjab assembly Mahinder Pal Singh, attended the cremation.

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Advisor to the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Information Ajmal Khan Wazir was also there.

The Sikh lawmakers urged Railway Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed to provide cash compensation to the families of the victims.

The van was carrying around 26 Sikh pilgrims, all from Peshawar, when it hit the Lahore-bound Shah Hussain Express at the railway crossing.

The victims included four members of a Sikh family who had gone to Nankana Sahib to condole the death of a relative.

Ravendar Singh, a resident of Mohalla Jogan Shah, said the tragedy has shocked them.

He said there is hardly any house in the neighbourhood whose family member is not among the 21 Sikh victims.

"We have been living here together for decades like one family and the entire Sikh community is deeply saddened over the death of their community members," he said.

Secretary-General Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee Sardar Amir Singh said the deceased belong to three or four families. Peshawar is home to most of Pakistan's nearly 40,000 Sikhs.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)