Pakistan dispatched an aircraft to Tehran on Friday to bring back the remains of 28 Shiite pilgrims who were killed in a bus accident in Iran while en route to Iraq. The flight will also transport 23 injured pilgrims back to Pakistan, as confirmed by Nasir Shah, a government spokesman in Sindh province. All the deceased and wounded pilgrims were from various districts in Sindh.
Shah’s announcement came before Pakistani diplomats received the bodies of the crash victims from Iranian officials following their funeral on Friday.
State television in Pakistan aired scenes of both Iranian and Pakistani attendees at the funeral ceremony in Iran. Upon the plane’s arrival at an airport after midnight, preparations will be made to hand over the bodies to the families of the deceased, while the injured will be taken to a hospital for treatment.
The pilgrimage, which ended tragically in the bus accident, was to commemorate Arbaeen. Arbaeen, meaning the number 40 in Arabic, is an important occasion that commemorates the death of Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in the early days of Islam’s history.