DNA reports of 10 Pakistanis dead in Madinah bus crash being processed – official

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities are still awaiting the DNA test results of its 10 nationals who were killed in a bus accident near the Muslim holy city of Madinah on October 16, said an official on Friday.
“It takes two weeks to complete DNA test reports,” Arshad Munir, an official at the Pakistan consulate in Jeddah, told Arab News. “The results are being awaited.”
It may be recalled that 39 pilgrims, who were traveling on a privately chartered bus, recently suffered a major accident near Madinah when their vehicle collided with a lorry. Among the passengers were 11 Pakistanis, only one of whom survived the crash and was admitted in the King Fahad Hospital.
Since the bodies of the pilgrims were badly burnt, DNA test became a necessity to identify each victim of the road tragedy. The Saudi authorities took the samples and sent them to a lab to complete the identification process.
Meanwhile, on the direction of Pakistan’s foreign office, the country’s consulate general in Jeddah established contact with relevant Saudi authorities and got in touch with the hospital management in Madinah.
Last week, Dr. Khalid Abbas Asadi, a distinguished Pakistani doctor at another medical facility in the Kingdom, told Arab News that all of the injured were getting “the best possible medical facilities” at the King Fahad Hospital.
“We as representatives of Pakistani community are in touch with the Saudi health ministry and Pakistan embassy in Riyadh to keep the families of the victims abreast of the latest situation,” Dr. Asadi said.