Mangalore : New Job Claimed Joen Saldanha's Life
Moodbidri, May 26 (DHNS): The new job put him on this ill-fated flight which crashed in Mangalore on Saturday. Joen Saldanha (28) was returning home to renew his visa and his journey to native was his last journey.
Saldanha had completed BCom from Pompei College in Aikala and had taken training in software networking in NITK. For few months, he had worked in MRPL. He was the former president of ICYM, Niddodi. He was a friendly person, according to his friends.
He had dreamt of starting self-employment after working in Gulf country for five years. He had been to Dubai on visiting visa and as expected he had job offer in Dubai and was about to join for duty in June. However, as his visa period had ended, he had to return home for the renewal of the visa.
He had called Niddodi Priest Joseph Lobo and informed that he will be meeting him on Sunday. However, he met the Priest in his coffin. The funeral was held on Monday evening, which was attended by large number of relatives, friends.
Mourning, but no bodies to grieve over
Though almost all the kith and kin of those who lost their lives in the IX-812 Dubai-Mangalore aircraft crash at Kenjar on Saturday are inconsolable, the situation at Kareem Saab’s family is unexplainable as they have lost four members of their family, out of which three are yet to be identified.
While Sameena Abdul Karim’s (35) body has been identified, the bodies of her husband Mohammed Ziad (45) and the couple’s children — Mohammed Subair Zaid (5) and Zainab Mohammed Ziad (3) are yet to be identified. What has made the situation worse is the fact that there are no male children’s bodies in the mortuary. Out of the 22 unidentified bodies, there are 20 men’s bodies, one woman’s body and one female child’s body.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Sameena’s father Karim Saab said that they don’t know what to do for they don’t have a body too to be claimed. Incidentally, the four of them had come to Mangalore to attend Ziad’s mother Haalima’s funeral. But fate had its own way that they too perished in the aircrash.
Just miss
When the family members reached Wenlock hospital mortuary, there were two children’s bodies. But the family members left the place to identify the bodies of Ziad at other hospitals. By the time they returned, they were horrified to learn that somebody else had taken the body leaving only one body.
“The only body has a pendent with a mark H M which may not be ours. Hence, where are our little children’s bodies,” they question. The couple had four children, but they left two elder children at Dubai with their relatives as they could not get tickets at the last moment. And only four of them came to Mangalore.
The two surviving children have arrived on Monday. Though the family members are waiting for DNA reports to identify Ziad’s body, they don’t know what to do as there are no bodies in the mortuary. When contacted, Mangalore Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said that DNA test would prove the truth. But when queried about no male children’s bodies in the mortuary, he said “wait for the DNA test.”
Seven others killed too
Seven other relatives of Karim Saab too were on the ill-fated flight. While three of them are their neighbours — Irshad Ahmed, Neha Parveen and Affan Ahmed (infant), four others are residents of Doddanagudde in Udupi. They are deceased Ibrahim Saheb (45), his wife Sameena Saheb (39), son Issam Ibrahim (16) and daughter Rida Ibrahim (10), all natives of Kirimanjeshwara at Baindur in Udupi district.
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