‘We understand that friends, family and relatives are going through unimaginable pain, but some legal and medical formalities are mandatory.’
THE Ganies of Katoo Bijbehara have been restlessly waiting since 6th September to hug their daughter Khushboo Manzoor one last time.
Khushboo, 22, was pursuing her MBBS degree at Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College, Bangladesh. She fell from a building on Tuesday and was subsequently moved to a hospital where she was admitted in ICU before passing away.
Her college friend told Kashmir Observer over phone from Bangladesh that the deceased suffered multiple fractures, spinal cord compression, haemothorax, left kidney crush, pelvic and femur fracture besides shoulder dislocation.
“She lost more than 65 per cent blood and was put on ventilator,” Khushboo’s friend said. “She was not responding to any treatment.”
Khushboo was the only girl child of her family. Her mother Shameem Bano hasn’t eaten anything since her tragic end.
“After every five minutes, she demands the status of her daughter’s dead body,” Sharif Hussain, Khusboo’s cousin, told Kashmir Observer. “The family is traumatized because of the delay in dispatching her body from Dhaka.”
Sharif said that the family was asked by Bangladesh authorities to follow certain procedures including sending an affidavit which they did.
But despite that, the campus took its time drawing protest from hundreds of her fellow students demanding to send Khushboo’s body back to her home.
Following the campus commotion and the legal formalities, Khushboo’s body was finally cleared for homecoming on Thursday evening. It’s arriving in the valley on Friday.
But the delay in dispatching dead bodies from abroad has now become a new distress for the Kashmiri families who lose their loved ones away from home.
“Even if the district administration was very cooperative and trying their best to bring back the body, Khushboo’s parents were restless,” Sharif said.
“It’s a bigger torment for parents to wait for the dead body of their loved ones dying far away from home.”
While launching a massive campaign on social media to bring back the body, many Kashmiri netizens said that it is not the first time that people “had to plead” for the return of dead bodies of students or employees from foreign soils.
In April 2022, a 25-year-old youth from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district died in a similar way after falling from a building in Saudi Arabia.
The youth identified as Imran Ahmad Sheikh of Baramulla’s Nehalpora area was working with Shahwarmar Company Taif.
The family then had to move from pillar to post for the early return of his body from Saudi Arabia so that they could perform his last rites.
Similarly, on 12 January 2022, a Kashmiri girl student from central Kashmir’s Budgam district died of cardiac arrest in Bangladesh.
The deceased Seema Zehra was a second year MBBS student at Ad din Sakina Medical College Jessore. Her family also appealed to the Governor to help get her body back home.
“It takes some time to follow the proper procedure and clear the legal formalities of dead bodies that are supposed to be brought back from the other countries,” Pandurang K. Pole, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, told Kashmir Observer.
“In this [Khushboo’s] case, the parents were not willing to get the post-mortem done, however they finally agreed.”
In most of the cases, Pole said, the administration has brought the bodies on time.
“We understand that friends, family and relatives are going through unimaginable pain, but some legal and medical formalities are mandatory,” Nasir Khuehami, spokesperson of Jammu and Kashmir Students Association, told Kashmir Observer.
“It takes at least two days to bring back the dead bodies from other countries.”
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