Bodies of 60 of the 72 Pokhara crash victims given to families
6 bodies have been sent to the police lab for DNA analysis. After handing 22 remains to their kin in Pokhara, 48 were flown to the Capital. Post File Photo
On Monday, nine days after the yeti airlines plane crash, a family cremated four of its members who were killed in the accident, at Pashupati Aryaghat. Yuvraj Sharma and his three family members were among the 72 persons killed in the horrific accident.
As the bodies of Yuvraj and his son Babin were not found, the two were represented by Kusha grass effigies and cremated alongside the bodies of his mother Jamuna and daughter Aayurdi.
“We didn’t have any option other than to represent Yuvraj uncle and babu [son] in Kusha effigies as per Hindu customs when the bodies are not found,” said Roshan Tiwari, 28, nephew of Yuvraj.
“We waited for eight days, but they could not identify the bodies, so we had to use effigies for cremation,” said Tiwari, who is from Parbat district, where Yuvraj’s family originally belongs.
as in the case of Yuvraj and his son, the bodies of eight victims of the plane crash have yet to be identified, according to the Nepal police Headquarters, Naxal.
of the 72 people who died in the January 15 crash, the bodies of 60 people have already been handed over to family members, according to officials. twenty-two bodies were handed over in Pokhara and the remaining 48 were flown to Kathmandu on January 18 by two Nepal army helicopters to carry out further investigation and postmortem examinations.
“along with the 48 bodies, two body bags containing different body parts of victims collected from the accident site were also sent to Kathmandu,” said Tek Bahadur KC, chief district officer (CDO) of Kaski.
He said rescuers have continued searching for the remaining two bodies or parts at the accident sites.
“I guess, the body parts of the two missing could also be identified through DNA tests of the parts in the body bags, but we have continued our search at the accident site on the Seti river,” said KC.
According to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Poshraj Pokharel, central spokesperson of the Nepal Police, 38 bodies—22 males, 14, female and two infants—have been handed over to family members by Tuesday.
“We have ascertained the identities of four more persons and their bodies will be handed over to the kin soon. The bodies of eight victims have yet to be identified,” said Pokharel.
Police said six bodies have been sent to the Samakhusi-based Central Police Forensic Science Laboratory for DNA testing. “it takes around 20 days to get a report,” said Senior Superintendent Rakesh K Singh, who is also the chief of the laboratory.
Singh said they compare the DNA markers of the victims’ father or mother or children to identify the bodies.
Anup Ojha was a reporter for The Kathmandu Post primarily covering social issues, crime, and human interest stories since 2011. Before moving to the social beat, Ojha covered arts and culture for the Post for four years.
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