On this picture launched by the Pakistan Air Drive, the our bodies of Shiite Muslim pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran whereas on their approach to Iraq for a pilgrimage, arrive at an air base in Jacobabad, Pakistan, Aug. 24, 2024. | Photograph credit score: AP
“Pakistan on Friday (August 23, 2024) introduced residence the our bodies of 28 Shia pilgrims who died in a bus accident in Iran this week whereas on their approach to Iraq for a pilgrimage. A Pakistani navy plane additionally introduced again 23 pilgrims injured within the accident,” officers stated.
Hours earlier, in Iran, authorities handed over the our bodies of the crash victims to Pakistani diplomats. Spiritual companies had been held each in Iran and later in Pakistan.
The funeral shall be held within the victims’ residence districts on Saturday (August 24, 2024). The pilgrims had been from Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, in response to Nasir Shah, a spokesman for the provincial authorities.
The airplane, requested by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the repatriation, landed at Jacobabad airport, about 1,000 kilometres southwest of the capital Islamabad. The coffins, draped with the Pakistani nationwide flag, had been handed over to the victims’ family for burial.
State-run pay tv broadcast the ceremony at Jacobabad airport, the place family of the victims cried and hugged one another.
Authorities haven’t revealed the reason for the crash close to the city of Taft, about 500 kilometers southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
In a state tv report, Mohammad Ali Malekzadeh, an area Iranian emergency official, blamed the accident on a failure of the bus’ brakes and the motive force’s inattention. Surveillance video later broadcast on state tv confirmed the bus dashing previous a parked automobile and heading into a mud parking zone simply earlier than the crash, narrowly lacking pedestrians.
Iran has one of many worst highway security information on the earth, with round 17,000 deaths a 12 months. The dire toll is attributed to widespread disregard for site visitors legal guidelines, unsafe autos and insufficient emergency companies in its huge rural areas.
The pilgrims had been heading to the holy Iraqi metropolis of Karbala to mark Arbaeen (quantity 40 in Arabic), which marks the tip of the annual 40-day mourning interval following the Seventh-century demise of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein, a central determine in Shiite Islam.
Hussein was killed by Umayyad Muslim forces on the Battle of Karbala, throughout the tumultuous first century of Islamic historical past.
