Businessman who lost 25 people in the Mangalore crash, including relatives, friends and business associates as heartbroken when he surveyed the wreckage yesterday

'Don't know whom to mourn for'

Businessman who lost 25 people in the Mangalore crash, including relatives, friends and business associates as heartbroken when he surveyed the wreckage yesterday

Mohammed Naseer (45), a Dubai-based businessman of Indian origin, is a man in mourning. He lost not one but 25 people he knew well in the Mangalore air crash. The dead include relatives, friends and his business partner Iqbal Siddiqui.

Naseer, who visited the crash site in Mangalore after the area was opened to the public on Monday afternoon, said, "I don't know for whom to mourn.

All 25 bodies in the airplane were charred beyond recognition. We were certain only about Iqbal Siddiqui's identity. The Rolex watch he was wearing was intact."

It took over 12 hours before we found a body without an arm. Since it matched, we discovered it was him," Naseer said.

Siddiqui was Naseer's business partner. "We have been through a lot of ups and downs together. We lost a lot of money in the Dubai real estate market," Naseer said. The partners had recently diversified and begun trading in textiles.

Naseer's family accompanied him to Mangalore from Kasargod in Kerala on hearing of the crash on Saturday.
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They were so moved on seeing the crash site that they not only took photographs of the aircraft remains but also attempted to carry some of the debris as mementos.
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They were, however, stopped by cops and reprimanded.

Of the 60-odd Malayalees who died in the crash, around 40 are from Naseer's home district Kasargod, where every panchayat has dozens of people living in the Gulf countries. While 30 funerals have been conducted so far, not all the bodies have been identified yet.

Mohammed Naseer lost his relatives, friends and business associates in the air crash. A view of an airplane flying above the site where the Air India plane crashed on Saturday.

Gopal Hosur, SP Mangalore said, "The identification of bodies was also difficult since many bodies were together,u00a0like women clinging on to their children, couples holding one another tightly.
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"We had to separate all these bodies before conducting the DNA tests," Hosur said.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP from Kasargod, Pu00a0 Karunakaran has been going from house to house in his constituency, consoling the grief-stricken relatives of the victims.
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"It is the most painful moment of my political life. I lost 49 people in my constituency. Majority of them are poor," Karunakaran told MiD DAY when he visited the crash site.

The 65-year-old MP said he had visited the houses of 48 victims in the constituency. "There are no words to console the relatives and friends. Nothing can compensate the loss of life," he said.

105
Number of men who died in the Mangalore crash

32
Number of women who died

19
Number of children who died

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