KARACHI: Zubair Ahmed, 33, missing since the stampede in Mina, is said to have been buried by Saudi authorities two days back, his cousin Saleem Ahmed informed Dawn on Monday.

Zubair Ahmed was among the five family members who lost each other during the stampede on Sept 23. The bodies of Professor Iftikhar Ahmed and Professor Talmeez Ahmed were found from a hospital mortuary in Mina. Professor Talmeez’s wife, Shams Jahan, made it safely back home. However, the search for the missing two — Professor Iftikhar’s wife Rana Iftikhar and their son Zubair Ahmed – was ongoing.

“Last night we got to know that Zubair was buried two days back in Mina,” Ahmed told Dawn.

“The Saudi authorities matched the fingerprints of the dead with the ones they got from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) as well as from their airport security staff,” he said.

The family now awaits news about Rana Iftikhar and cautiously hopes for her return. “It would be a miracle if she made it back. We are being realistic. But having said that let me add that one always needs closure. If a family member is missing one wants to know if they are alive. And if they are dead one wants to see them for the last time. In this case, we used all our resources and hopefully we’ll find Rana Iftikhar, too.”

However, Ahmed says it was because of his resources and connections with the Saudi authorities that he was able to receive information on his relatives. In majority of the other cases, relatives are still running from pillar to post to find out about their loved ones since they complain that the Pakistan consulate in Jeddah “has no clue about the missing or the dead”.

Uzma Khaliq, whose sister Bushra Khaliq has not been traced since the Mina stampede, says their brother could not find any help in Mina either. “We received news that some of the mutilated bodies are being kept inside refrigerated containers, but it is quite difficult to access those places without a proper contact,” she said.

Bushra, training instructor at a private airline in Riyadh, went missing along with her two friends, Khadija Saeed and Rida Emaan.

A spokesperson with the Pakistan consulate said they are trying their “best to identify the victims of the Mina tragedy”.

Published in Dawn, October 6th , 2015

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