JEDDAH, 12 May 2004 — The Indian community yesterday bade farewell to seven girls and a teacher killed in Monday’s Indian International School bus accident. They were buried in Makkah’s Jannat Al-Mualla.
Parents, teachers and community members crowded the washing ritual in Ruwais as a fleet of police cars and ambulances waited outside.
The bodies were driven to Makkah toward evening. Burial after Isha was followed by special prayers at a local mosque.
Parents, relatives and friends looked inconsolable as they crowded the boys’ and girls’ sections of the school, which were closed for the day in memory of the crash victims.
“We’re here to find out what arrangements have been made for the burial of the dead,” Arif Siddiqui, a parent said earlier in the day. “My children are not among the dead, but all children are like my own,” he said.
The driver of the ill-fated 30-seater minibus, Habibur Rahman, was released from hospital shortly before midnight on Monday. “He was shell-shocked. He has not spoken since his release,” a member of the IISJ managing committee said.
The driver was released after all legal formalities had been completed, he said. Habibur Rahman had to identify the bodies of two of his daughters — Haifa and Harsha — who were killed in the crash. A third, Hanan, who was among 16 girls injured, was recovering in Al-Thagr Hospital after surgery on her leg and may have to stay for another four or five days, doctors said.
Consul General Syed Akbaruddin, who visited Al-Thagr Hospital, told Arab News that of two others admitted there on Monday, one had been discharged and the second, Najma Sayeed, a teacher in the 3-5 block, was recovering.
One girl is still in King Fahd Hospital and seven are recovering at King Abdul Aziz Medical City.
The chairman of the school managing committee, Yousuf Khan Jaweed, said all the children had insurance cover and the insurance company had been informed. “There was no problem in getting the driver released as the school completed all the legal formalities,” he said.
Inquiries with the school show that the insurance company has previously been willing to pay blood money. “Over a year ago, a teenage girl was run over by a school bus when it dropped her near her house, and the blood money part was settled by the school in cooperation with the insurance company,” a school official said.
There was debate in the community over how the driver could have crashed the bus after a 20-year accident-free record with the school. “It’s believed that he lost control when a Chevrolet suddenly tried to overtake him,” said a driver who did not wish to be identified.
“Accidents caused by overtaking vehicles are common on the Makkah Expressway,” a consulate source said. “One of our consuls had a similar experience some time ago but luckily escaped unhurt.”
