KARACHI: With complaints about Pakistani officials deputed in Mina rising, families of people still unidentified or ‘missing’ after the Mina stampede are gradually losing hope of ever finding them.

Speaking to Dawn on Friday, Saleem Ahmed, whose five relatives went to perform Haj and only one of them made it back home, said he was “frustrated with the Saudi and Pakistani officials”.

Specifically speaking about the Pakistani officials deputed in Mina, he said one of their family friends, Zafar Tahir, informed them that there was no coordination or cooperation forthcoming from the authorities.

“He told us that officials from other countries were quick in taking hold of the list of the dead or unidentified and within days were done with the process, whereas Pakistanis who went there were completely on their own,” Saleem added.

Also waiting for a response from the officials is Uzma Khaliq, whose sister, Bushra Khaliq, and two of her friends, Khadija Saeed and Ridah Emaan Naseer, could not be traced. “My mother’s health condition is getting worse, as we are looking for answers or even a hint about where she is,” she said.

Her brother who went looking for them informed her that “in order to enter certain mortuaries one requires permission from officials.

And, as a result, the queues around mortuaries are longer than anywhere else. Patronage and connection helps, but not everyone knows a higher official,” she added.

Uzma and Saleem have presumed their respective loved ones dead.

“We have no other choice. Either Rana Fareed has been buried without identification since her ID was found in her son’s belongings or by some luck she survived. But if that were the case we would have eventually received information about it,” Saleem added.

The death toll from the Sept 24 Mina stampede keeps rising as representatives of different countries gather in Jeddah to collect the bodies of their respective citizens.

The number of dead, according to Saudi officials, is 769 killed while 934 were injured. But individual accounts and tally of the number of dead from media reports shows an increased death toll than the one shared by the Saudi officials. According to the latest updates, 102 Pakistanis are considered dead in the stampede.

According to Zafar Tahir, a family member of Zubair Ahmed who died in the stampede, there were around 1,209 pictures of the people at the mortuary opposite the Mina Medical Complex.

On coming back to Karachi, Zafar said the “mismanagement and non-cooperative” attitude of the Pakistani officials was adding to confusion”.

About the tragedy and the ensuing confusion about the number of dead, Uzma said, “It’s a matter of priority. We have presumed our sister dead, but it’s only natural to want to know more: what happened and how. We still have no answers. And until we get to that point, there would be no closure.”

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2015

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