Sharjah: The bodies of three children and their mother who perished in a car crash on Saturday evening are expected to be sent back to Pakistan on Wednesday even as the head of the family battles for life in a hospital in Dhaid.
Doctors at the hospital said that the 36-year-old father, Syed Mudassar Shah Bukhari, had survived miraculously but remains in critical condition. The Fujairah-based family met with the accident as they were returning from Makkah after performing Umrah.
Police suspect that Bukhari dozed off at the wheel due to exhaustion leading to the collision in which an Emirati motorist was also killed.
Police said the family was travelling in a saloon car that reportedly veered off the road, hurtled over the median, and crashed into an oncoming four-wheel-drive vehicle driven by an Emirati man, who died on the spot.
Syed Masoud Shah, Bukhari’s cousin, told Gulf News that Bukhari and his family had reached Sharjah from Makkah in a bus and then chosen to drive home in their car, which had been parked in his house.
Bukhari and his family stayed for about half-an-hour at his place before setting off for Fujairah, Shah recalled.
Those who died in the accident included Bukhari’s wife, Diri Bibii, 33, and his children Atiqa, 7, Hamdan, 4, and Arshafa, 2.
Friends and relatives of the family, who only came to know about the accident a day later, gathered at Al Dhaid Hospital.
Shah described his cousin as a thorough gentleman and someone who was loved by everyone in the family.
Bukhari and his family had been living in the UAE for 15 years.
Bukhari’s immediate family in Pakistan had not been aware about the tragedy until Sunday, Shah said. He said relatives of the family in the UAE were trying to complete the paperwork and repatriate the bodies by Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Emirati who died in the accident, Y.M, was buried on Saturday.
