LAHORE, May 7: The tragic death of 22 pilgrims of a same locality in a road accident near Chatri Mor, Murree, on Sunday evening has left the Shadbagh residents in a state of shock and grief.

Aggrieved families mourned the death of their loved ones while sitting in the tents erected in front of their houses at Nabi Bakhsh Park, Javed Park and Tajpura (Shadbagh) on Monday morning. People in large numbers visited them to offer condlences.

At least 22 people were killed and six others injured when their coach plunged into a ravine on their return to Lahore from the shrine of Pir Tanaka in Mansehra.

“All people were regular visitors to Masjid Hanfia and had gone to the NWFP for the second time,” a family member told Dawn.

He said the victims had a very close association with each other, and they mutually arranged the tour by contributing Rs600 each.

Afzal said his blind brother-in-law, Rana Rafiq, 65, and Rafiq’s son-in-law Ejaz, 40, were killed while Rafiq’s son Rana Shafiq, 35, sustained injuries in the incident.

“Rafiq was a regular visitor to the shrines. He along with others had been planning visits to shrines in the NWFP for the last 25 days and finally fixed Saturday for departure,” he said.

Rafiq’s relative Hafiz Umar complained that they did not receive any emergency help from the government and private ambulances demanded Rs20,000 per body as transportation charges.

Mudassar Mushtaq of the same area cancelled his visit at the eleventh hour when one of the elders, Haji Ismael, asked him not to accompany them for space restriction in the vehicle.

He said: “I was also double minded at the time of departure as one of my neighbours, Bilal Shah, cancelled his programme. When I went to one of the tour managers, Haji Sahib, he told me that no seat was available.” So I got my money back.

Shabbir, 38, boarded the coaster from Do Moriya Pul when he earlier missed the bus.

“Shabbir’s wife gave birth to their first baby after 17 years of marriage,” Haji Ameen, brother of Shabbir, told this reporter.

Abbas Ali said his father, Haji Ismael, 83, had gone for the second time and his next programme was to visit shrines in Multan.

Family members said the government did not bother to facilitate them in transporting bodies from Murree to Lahore. “At least we should have been provided with a suitable transport facility collectively,” said Khalil Malik.

He regretted that not even a single official of the Punjab government came to console them.

Edhi ambulances had transported 10 bodies from Murree to Lahore till the filing of this report.

An Edhi official of Islamabad office, Muhammad Hashim, told Dawn by phone that 20 ambulances carrying as many bodies had been sent to Lahore. He said the injured were admitted to the Murree Civil Hospital.

Those killed were identified as Nazim Husain Shah, Rana Rafiq, Ejaz Ahmad, Tahir Nazir, Haji Latif Bhatti, Muhammad Shabbir, Haji Ismael, Haji Hayat Khokhar, Mehr Khalid, Anees Siddiqui, Javed Iqbal, Asghar Qureshi, Haji Sharif, Javed, Tahir Butt, Chaudhry Ashiq, Mehr Akram, Ejaz alias Jajji Shah, Naeem Shah, Haji Maqsood, Ayyaz and coach driver Asghar.

The injured were identified as Rehan, Abdul Razzaq, Haji Muhammad Din, Rana Shafeeq and Miraj Din.

Funeral prayers were offered for nine victims at the Gol Bagh ground.

Bodies of Ejaz alias Jajji and Javed were sent to Narowal and Gujranwala, respectively.

According to a PPP’s release, 25,000 people participated in the funeral prayers.

Those included PPP Lahore president Haji Aziz Chan, provincial deputy secretary information Iqbal Sialvi, local PPP nazim Sheikh Iqbal, PML-N nazim Ghazali Butt, former Azad Kashmir minister Ghulam Mohayyudin Dewan and other notables.

Later, the deceased were laid to rest in different graveyards.