In the month of March, Nabeel Ahmed Idrees, 27, took his 26-year-old wife, Nosheen Tahir, to her home in Gujranwala for the first time after their wedding in October 2019. Tahir wanted to stay a little longer with her parents; hence, Idrees came back to Karachi after a brief stay at his in-laws. In April there was a lockdown and Tahir couldn’t come back. On May 22, just two days before Eid-ul-Fitr, Tahir, sitting on seat 7-F, was returning to her in-laws on the ill-fated Pakistan International Airlines flight PK-8304. Her husband, who was also her first cousin and khala’s (maternal aunt's) son, was already at the arrival lounge of the Jinnah International Airport when the plane crashed in Model Colony’s Jinnah Garden.
It was around 3pm when Nabeel, who works at a construction firm, called his younger brother, Mobin Idrees, and told him that there had been a plane crash. “He didn’t know which plane it was, as two domestic flights were supposed to land at that time,” Mobin told The News.
The security at the airport told Nabeel that one of the two planes had crashed. All other siblings of Nabeel and Mobin live abroad. The brothers rushed to the scene of the crash in Model Colony’s Jinnah Garden in District Korangi. “Nabeel broke down, as what we saw gave us the idea that there wouldn’t be any survivors,” recalled Mobin who brought inconsolable Nabeel back home. Their home wore a somber look and as Nabeel and his mother found it hard to hold up.
When they turned on the TV at home the family got to know that there’s a survivor after which Mobin rushed to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Malir with one of his cousins. “We were told there that there’s only one male victim of the crash with minor injuries,” he said, adding that they came to know that few wounded had been shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
At the JPMC, Mobin recalled that families of the victims had already gathered for identification. “Families were stopped outside a building who were coming to look for their loved ones, while the dead bodies continued to pour in,” he said.
He stood in a queue as there wasn’t any helpdesk at the hospital. “I saw burned dead bodies there,” he said. “I asked someone at the counter to note down the name of the victim, her details, but I was told that anything could only be done, if I am able to identify the body.” He was repeatedly told by the hospital management to not disturb them.
At the JPMC he got to know that three survivors, out of which two females, are at the Civil Hospital Burns Center. Upon reaching the hospital his hopes dashed as he got to know that Muhammad Zubair was the only plane crash survivor and the two females are the residents of the Jinnah Garden.
There were few dead bodies at Civil, “after keeping me waiting for quite long and repeated requests and few phone calls I was allowed to check few bodies.” He said that the attitude of the hospital management was very insensitive and there was no helpdesk either. “I didn’t know who to talk to.” All along this time he was in touch with Chipa and Edhi for the identification of his sister-in-law’s body. “She wasn’t just my bhabi or first cousin; she was just like my sister,” said the 24-year-old Mobin, who’s the youngest sibling of the family.
Late on the night of the crash, he got to know that the JPMC had received more bodies. “They had the same indecent attitude; no respect for the family members of the victims,” he lamented, adding that he couldn’t find his sister-in-law’s body even late on Friday night. Meanwhile, the brothers had got in touch with the PIA’s emergency response centre.
The next day, Mobin came to know about the DNA tests being conducted at the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at the University of Karachi (KU). Amid all this, the father of Tahir had started his journey to the metropolis by train. “No one from family had allowed him to come by air.” He asked the ICCBS if his uncle could give his DNA in Lahore, “but the answer was a clear no.”
On Saturday, he tried to identify bodies at the Edhi Centre but failed. “The inquiry calls from the PIA response centre turned out to be useless, as they had no information with them,” he said. Even on Sunday morning (the Eid day) when his uncle arrived, the brother had no information. He took him to the ICCBS where a container was installed for DNA sampling. “We weren’t given any receiving or slip after the DNA test.”
When asked when they would approach, Mobin was told that the police would coordinate with them. He was then told that the Model Colony Police Station will be looking into the matter. He went to the police station and learnt that the SHO was at the plane crash scene. He asked a duty officer, who was the sole official at the police station, to note down his contact number and the information of the victim. “The low-rank official in return asked me to call the SHO,” recalled Mobin, adding that the SHO didn’t receive his call and he went to the site of the crash. Upon repeated requests, he wasn’t allowed to see the SHO.
On the day of the Eid, Mobin had seen more than 50 charred bodies thoroughly to identify his sister-in-law’s corpse. “I took time at each body for a clue, but unfortunately she wasn’t wearing any jewellery, else it would have been easy,” he said, adding that before boarding the plane Tahir had sent a picture of herself to Nabeel, and that was why the family knew what clothes she was wearing, but that couldn’t help them either in recognising the body. “I had a doubt about one body at Chipa because of hair colour that was brown,” he said, adding that he had asked a Chipa official to let him know when he received the DNA report. The PIA, meanwhile, kept calling them if they had received the body or had given the DNA sample. “They must have had information,” he said frustratingly, adding that there was a complete administrative chaos. “I called the forensic lab and was told that I have 66 number for the DNA test.”
On Tuesday after a private news channel took few families of the victims and aired their plight, Mobin shared that there was a drastic change in the behaviour of authorities. “Since then some PIA official, Nabeela, has been in touch with us and she has all the information,” he said.
The family is still perturbed about the result of the DNA test as there’s no single source of information. “A few officials say it may take 21 to-24 days, while the ICCBS said it would take 10 to-15 days,” he said and lamented that no government official or leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf visited to console them; however, a team of the PIA paid them a visit and handed over a cheque to them.
Director ICCBS Dr Muhammad Iqbal told The News that it may take six to seven days for them to complete DNA tests on all the bodies. The results of DNA tests on as many as 18 bodies, he said, had already been sent. The SSP Korangi and the deputy commissioner of South, according to Iqbal, are handling the matter of delivering the bodies to families. On Thursday, Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani issued standard operating procedures for the identification of the bodies of the victims of the plane crash, according to which, the relevant DCs and assistant commissioners will facilitate the process.