I AM an Australian citizen of Bangladeshi origin living in Sydney. I draw the Pakistani authorities’ attention to an important matter.

Pakistan International Airline inaugural flight PK705 to Cairo on May 20, 1965, crashed while landing. Of the 128 passengers and crew on board, all but six were killed.

On board the ill-fated aircraft were 21 journalists, including A.K. Qureshi, the then administrator of the Associated Press of Pakistan, and Maj-Gen Hayauddin, the then Chairman of the National Press Trust. All of the victims were buried in Cairo and a memorial constructed. My eldest sister, Mrs F.N. Chowdhury, was among the passengers who died in the crash and buried in the same graveyard.

I do not know who maintains the memorial, PIA, the Pakistan embassy in Egypt or the Egyptian authorities.

My eldest sister died before I was born but is still remembered in our village.

She was the first female to obtain a secondary school certificate from our village. She was expecting and was proceeding to London to be with her husband.

Of late we have received news that has made our family sad. We are told that the local municipality in Cairo plans to demolish the graveyard to expand the city. The memorial in the graveyard needs to be preserved as a tribute to those who lost their lives in May 1965.

M. Jahedul Haque Choudhury
Sydney, Australia

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2020