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KARACHI, April 21: Touching scenes mixed with anger were witnessed amid chaos at Karachi airport, where relatives of victims of the inaugural Bhoja Air flight to Islamabad (B4-213) gathered to receive bodies, mostly parts of them, on Saturday.
One of the first flights was PK 301, carrying seven victims — Chand Baboo, Raza Ali Khan Feroze, Azizur Rehman, Tasneem Begum, Mohammad Irfan Rao, Imran Waheed and Abbas Ali Soomro. One of the victims hailed from Sukkur and another from Badin.
Abbas Ali Soomro from Badin was to attend his son Lieutenant Nadir Abbas Soomro’s passing out ceremony at Kakul. “The ceremony is taking place today, but Nadir missed it and is accompanying his father’s body back to Badin,” a cousin, Mohammad Yaqoob, told Dawn.
Another body brought in by PK-301 was of Chand Baboo, who had gone to Islamabad on a day-long business trip. “He was to return around this time today, but not in a coffin,” said his grieving nephew Khawar Aziz.
Asked about the condition of the body, his other nephew and son-in-law, Adeel Akhtar, said that only the lower torso was intact. “We recognised him by his clothes. The money, Rs25,000, that he had in his pocket, was still there with his cellphone. And it started ringing when we phoned him,” he said with eyes filled with tears.
The nephews said that they did not avail themselves of the airline’s offer to fly one relative free to collect the bodies and accompany them back from Islamabad. “We didn’t want to leave anything to chance and bought four tickets from our own pocket,” he added.
Family members of another victim, Raza Ali Khan Feroz, said that the deceased was President Asif Ali Zardari’s former technical adviser working with Faran Sugar Mills and yet they received shabby treatment from the airline staff following the crash.
“I paid Rs4,545 to transport my uncle’s body to Karachi from Islamabad. They charged me Rs35 per kilo,” said Syed Ali Khan.
Meanwhile, his brother, Naveed Muzaffar Ali Khan, said that Raza had gone to Islamabad for two celebrations – his own birthday and his daughter’s second wedding anniversary. “The rest of the family had left two days earlier. He joined them late due to prior commitments,” he said.
About the state of the body, he said that it was in three pieces. “But we recognised him from the rings on his fingers.”
Mohammad Saleem, an uncle of another victim travelling to Islamabad on business, Mohammad Irfan Rao, said he was charged Rs12,000 to transport his nephew’s body here.
Most of the bodies arriving here were in a very poor state and unrecognisable. “They knew there were 63 women on the ill-fated flight so they just prepared 63 body bags for them,” said another angry relative about the recovery mission following the tragedy.
Meanwhile, another flight (PK-369) with 10 more bodies was waiting at Quetta before heading to Karachi. It carried the bodies of Mujtaba Sial, Javed Iqbal, Syed Umar Ali, Qari M. Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Anwer, Sajjad Rizvi, Sania Abbas and a family of three from Sukkur — Irfan Ali, his wife, Musarrat Shaheen, and Rehan Ali, their one-and-a-half-year-old son.
One relative was frantically trying to get information about his loved ones, Hamida Khadima and her two daughters Shazia and Sadaf Baloch. “They had all gone to Islamabad in connection with their visa for which they had applied to the American Embassy,” he said. “I am not sure which flight their bodies are arriving on.”
According to Rana Akram, duty facilitation officer, at the Civil Aviation Authority desk at Jinnah Terminal, the bodies of the victims were being brought back in batches of six or 10 at regular intervals on normal scheduled flights from Islamabad. “We are getting them here as soon as the relatives identify them on regular flights from the capital,” he said.
About the families of the victims being charged money to transport the bodies, another CAA official, requesting anonymity, said it was all due to miscommunication. “The orders to transport the bodies free of charge came at around 10am today whereas those people who paid for the purpose had booked the flights before that time,” he explained.
Sharmila apologises
Adviser to the chief minister Sindh Sharmila Farooqi apologised to the relatives of the crash victims for being treated insensitively by the airport staff and airlines.
“The president has issued orders for free transportation of the bodies and to help you all in anyway we can. We are very sorry for your loss.
Please accept my sincere apologies for any kind of inconvenience caused to you during this difficult time,” said Sharmila, who was accompanied by the deputy commissioner of Malir, Shafqat Jokhio, at the airport. “I will see to it that the government refunds every single penny. Also I will ensure that you are provided ambulances free of charge to transport the bodies from the airport to your homes, even for those who are going to the interior of Sindh.
“This is a national tragedy and I share your grief. My own mother was about to book a seat on the same flight that you all lost your loved ones on. Had she not changed her mind at the last moment, I, too, would be lining up here to claim a casket,” she said.
