Bhoja Air 737: Thousands attend funerals across Sindh

Funerals held from Shikarpur to Jacobabad.

SUKKUR/ KARACHI: As many as 43 bodies of those onboard Bhoja Air which crashed on Friday, killing 127 people, have reached Karachi. A total of 14 funerals were held on Sunday.

Five victims were laid to rest in their native graveyards in Thari Mir Wah, Shikarpur and Jacobabad.

The passengers included Hameeda and her two daughters, Shazia and Sadaf, who were residents of the Sher Mohammad Shar village near Thari Mir Wah, along with Zuhra Khatoon who was a resident of Mirpur Buriro near Thull, and Dr Asadullah Mangrio, a resident of Shikarpur.

Thousands of people reportedly attended the burial processions.

Not just victims of flight B 213

Zuhra Khatoon, wife of late Mohammad Mureed Dayo, was coming back from Karachi after attending wedding festivities of a close relative.

She was supposed to meet her son Mohammad Saqib Dayo, an engineer in the Pakistan Army, who is posted in Rawalpindi. According to her will, she was laid to rest in Jacobabad.

The bodies of 55-year-old Hameeda, the wife of late Khadim Hussain Shar, and her two daughters, 28-year-old Sadaf and 25-year-old Shazia, were brought to Thari Mir Wah. Hameeda was planning to visit her son, Khalid Hussain Shar, in the United States with her daughters and was reportedly scheduled for an interview at the American Embassy in Islamabad. The family went through two deaths in the last three years, one of Hameeda’s husband and the other of her son, Farhan Shar, who was killed during a car-snatching attempt in Karachi eight months ago.

Dr Asadullah Mangrio, resident of Mangrio Muhalla Hazaridar, Shikarpur, was a physiatrist and worked at the Lyari General Hospital in Karachi. He leaves behind a widow, a son and a daughter and was laid to rest in the Haji Latif Shah Graveyard. He also ran a free clinic near his house in Shikarpur.

In Karachi, Anisa Akbar’s body was the only one flown from the capital on Sunday. Her remains arrived on PK 301 on Sunday morning and her funeral was held at the DHA imambargah.

Her husband Mir Muhammad Akbar demanded that investigations be carried out by experts only. “What is happening right now is that people are jumping to conclusions, and in a bid to uncover the truth the media is making assumptions,” he said.

Unlike other families who had to pay Rs5,000, Akbar said that he did not pay a single penny to bring his wife home as the airline covered the cost.

with additional input from Karachi

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2012.