PESHAWAR: Bodies of 21 expatriate Pakistanis arrived at the Bacha Khan International Airport here on Saturday night from Riyadh through a PIA flight.

The deceased, a majority of whom belonging to the Malakand division, were employed in Saudi Arabia. Relatives and relief workers received the bodies.

It is not known if the deceased were victims of the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them had been suffering from other health conditions. They died when they couldn’t access healthcare due to the lockdown and the emergency dealing with Covid-19 cases mainly.

“These bodies had been lying in mortuaries in Saudi Arabia for nearly three months as the international flights had been halted in the wake of the pandemic,” said Noor-ul-Wahid Jadoon, a spokesperson for Al Khidmat Foundation, the humanitarian wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami.

The foundation arranged free transport to shift the dead from Peshawar to their native towns in Malakand and the southern districts.

Earlier, on June 2, 20 bodies had reached Peshawar through a PIA flight. Again, the deceased were mainly workers employed in Saudi Arabia and UAE.

“The information available with us suggests that there are many more bodies still in the Gulf countries, waiting to be brought home,” said Mr Jadoon.

The airfare for bringing home the bodies was borne by relatives and expatriate colleagues of the dead.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2020