Families of plane crash victims approve of mass burial

Families of plane crash victims approve of mass burial

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, June 02: The grieving families of the Mangalore plane crash victims, whose bodies could not be identified even with DNA testing, have agreed for a mass burial of the unidentified body. The district administration might conduct the mass burial near Panambur beach in Mangalore on June 2, Wednesday. 

Mangalore Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh and In-charge District Deputy Commissioner S. A. Prabhakar discussed the matter with the concerned families at a meeting and proposed a mass burial rite. Eight of the 12 families in question participated in the meeting. The families responded that they had no choice but to agree with the district administration, which had tried its best to establish the identities of the bodies. They have requested the district administration to conduct the mass burial rites as per all religions. 

Four of the families laid claim to four bodies, saying that they are sure that they belong to their relatives. The district administration succeeded in convincing them not to pursue their claim since it could lead to legal problems.  

Records state that the bodies of Mohammed Zubair of Udupi and his children Zainab and Ziad, Navid Ibrahim, Vaman Prabhu of Ashoknagar, Ignatius D’Souza of Shaktinagar, Mohammed Ismail Hassan of Jeppu, K. K. Shetty Kodialbail, Abubakker Siddiq of Uppala, Abdul Aziz of Uppala, Abdul Basheer K. M Bekal, Sukumar Moilatti of Kerala, and air hostess Sujatha have not yet been recovered. 

The district administration assured the bereaved families that the failure of the DNA tests to establish identities of the bodies will not prevent the issuing of death certificates. About 60 death certificates have already been issued through the single window system set up at the Air India office in Lalbhag.