Absentee funeral prayers are offered for crew members; Search continues for black box and missing crew
FATAL ACCIDENT: A large gathering offers absentee funeral prayers for Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, who died in a crash of a K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo plane in the Arabian Sea. PHOTO: INP
KARACHI:
Even as the wreckage of the ill-fated K2 Airways cargo plane has been recovered and brought to Karachi, hopes of reconstructing the cause of the crash remain up in the air, with rescuers yet to locate the plane’s black box or recover the bodies of the crew.
According to sources, the recovered wreckage of the Boeing 737 cargo plane, which crashed in the Arabian Sea around 53 nautical miles from Ormara on Tuesday night, has been shifted from Balochistan to Karachi. However, authorities said the recovered remains are insufficient for investigators to determine the cause of the crash.
Rescue and rescue operations continued on Sunday despite the weekly holiday. Divers searched the waters around the suspected crash site while aerial surveillance was also maintained, but at the time of filing this report no trace of the flight data recorder or crew had been found.
Meanwhile, funeral prayers were offered in absentia in Karachi for the crew members believed to have lost their lives in the accident.
The ghaibana namaz-e-janaza of aeronautical engineer Muhammad Arif Siddiqui was held at Gulistan-e-Jauhar, led by his son, Abdul Rafi. The prayers were attended by Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi acting chief Muslim Parvez, party officials, family members, relatives, neighbors and a large number of party workers.
Speaking to reporters after prayers, Muslim Parvez said that ultimately every soul returns to its Creator. He said the residents of the area witnessed Siddiqui’s good character and prayed that Allah would grant him the highest place in the Hereafter. He expressed concern about the failure to recover the bodies of the crew and the plane’s black box several days after the crash, saying the government’s efforts to search at sea had been inadequate. He called the plane’s sudden disappearance from radar a great tragedy and called for a full, transparent and impartial investigation into the crash. He also urged the government to use all available resources to recover the bodies so that grieving families can find closure.
Separately, ghaibana namaz-e-janaza of the plane’s captain, Captain Rizwan Idris, was offered after Asr prayers at the Falcon Complex in Malir Cantonment on Sunday. A large number of relatives and residents attended the funeral prayer, along with serving and retired officers of the Pakistan Air Force, including Air Officer Commanding South, Base Commander Malir and members of the civil aviation community. The participants also expressed their condolences to the captain’s family, including his children, who had arrived from Germany.
The funeral prayer in the absence of aeronautical engineer Muhammad Arif Siddiqui was also attended by a large number of residents and leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, including Muslim Parvez, Eastern District Chief Naeem Akhtar and Information Secretary Zahid Askari. The funeral prayer in the absence of the plane’s second engineer, Muhammad Hamid, will be held on Monday after the Maghreb prayers at the Rim Jhim Tower in Safora.
