Never imagined it would be last I saw of them: Kin of Saudi victims

“When I saw them off at the Hyderabad airport on November 9 for the Umrah pilgrimage, I never imagined that I would be seeing them for the last time,” said Hyderabad-based Syed Rashid (35), who lost 18 members of his family in the tragic bus accident that claimed the lives of 42 Indian pilgrims near Medinah in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

Among the 18 relatives who died in the incident are Rashid's father Shaik Naseeruddin (65), a retired railways employee, mother Akhter Begum (60), his 38-year-old brother, 35-year-old sister-in-law and their three children. “I told them not to travel together, especially with children. But they did not listen. At least some of them would have survived, had they heeded to my advice,” Rashid, a resident of Vidyanagar in Hyderabad, said.