Saudi authorities send Bangladeshi man’s dead body to Pakistan

The dead body of a Bangladeshi worker was sent to Pakistan after being wrongly identified at a morgue in Saudi Arabia.

Nizamullah, a driver from Pakistan’s Peshawar, died in a road accident in a road accident at Dammam a week ago.

His relatives, who were waiting for his body to arrive at the Bacha Khan Airport in Peshawar, was surprised to see a strange corpse, reports the Saudi Gazette. 

The body was of Nizamullah, a Bangladeshi expatriate worker from Borura village of Comilla district, said Faisal Ahmed, an official of the Bangladesh consulate in Dammam, told bdnews24.com. 

But he could not provide further details of the man’s identity.

It is also not clear how he died, but an individual, not related to Pakistani Nizamullah, had identified him at a morgue in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. 

The family in Pakistan refused the body, which was sent back to the kingdom. “Now the authorities are working to repatriate the “right” body,” wrote the Saudi Gazette.

Nizamullah’a sponsor has however refused to pay for the cost of double repatriation.

“The airline charged SR1,833 to fly back the dead body to the kingdom. The expenses were borne by some community members with the hope that Pakistan Embassy or the sponsor would reimburse them,” said the Saudi Gazette.

Bangladesh Embassy Labour Councillor Sarwar Alam said that his office is aware of the goof-up.

“We will soon go there to verify the dead body’s identity and find out if he was from Bangladesh.”