Homeward bound: In death, Dera Bugti IDP wins right to return

The body of the 22-year-old was not being released.

ISLAMABAD:

Following the Islamabad High Court’s orders, Shifa International Hospital (SIH) on Wednesday handed over an internally displaced person’s (IDP) body  to his brother.

Gulsher, 22, from Dera Bugti, died on July 3 after suffering from chronic meningitis. When he was brought to SIH he was already brain dead.

He was among the 500 IDPs who had been protesting outside the National Press Club for the last two and half months to demand the right to return to their hometown.

The body was received by Gulsher’s elder brother Dilshad and other relatives in the presence of Islamabad Assistant Commissioner Imran Ali Sultan and I-9 Police Station DSP Ashraf Shah, who took it to the Benazir Bhutto International Airport to fly it to Quetta.

“I don’t know whether to feel sad upon receiving my brother’s  body or feel happy that I’ll be taking it to the hometown I left eight years ago,” said Dilshad.

Islamabad administration had directed SIH to keep the body in the hospital’s mortuary till steps to bury the body were finalised.



The high court, on July 9, had directed the capital administration officials to cooperate with the deceased Bugti tribesman’s family and transport the body to their hometown.

The court had disposed of the petition requesting the tribesman’s body after the police had assured their cooperation.

The SIH management had also written to the Islamabad administration and to Nawabzada Gohram Bugti, who was leading the protesters, to take away the body as it was decomposing and there was shortage of space in the hospital’s mortuary.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Jamhori Watan Party President Shahzain Bugti said the body had been taken to Quetta. Around 25-30  relatives of the deceased who are scattered in Sindh and other regions of the country will gather at Kashmore. From there they will be taken to Dera Bugti along with the body and the burial ceremony will be held on Thursday (today), he said.

All of Gulsher’s relatives will return to their homes in Dera Bugti and start a new life after eight years in exile.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2013.