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Son’s tragic death in accident ‘kept secret’

Mohammed Amjad, who was among the four Pakistanis, had arrived in the UAE on August 18, and had enthusiastically taken up his job with Al Naboodah Laing Rourke just a month back.

Speaking to Khaleej Times on the condition of anonymity, M.P., a distant cousin of his who works in Abu Dhabi, said that he received a call on September 28 from Pakistan and was asked to contact a person in Dubai regarding the accident.

“I had no idea about the accident, particularly about Amjad’s tragic death,” said M.P. “I was later put through to the company’s camp boss who then asked me to identify the body of Amjad,” he added.

“I am still in a state of shock and it will take some time to recover from it. Amjad was very young and had hoped to make it big one day,” said M.P.

Amjad hailed from Narowal, a small city in the Punjab province in Pakistan. Coming from a huge family of seven brothers and four sisters, Amjad was the only child to have travelled abroad to make money.

“His family has no idea about his death. I only told them that he has been critically injured and is in hospital. His mother insists on speaking to Amjad, but I keep on saying that he is drugged and is not in a state to talk,” said M.P. sadly.

He said that the police had yet to issue papers so that the body could be taken to Pakistan. “I’ve been visiting the Pakistan Consulate in Dubai to process my papers so that I can accompany the body to Pakistan. Company officials still refuse to divulge any details of what actually went wrong,” he added.

Meanwhile, a company source confirmed that the other dead Pakistani nationals were new recruits in the company and were in their 20’s. “We still have not received any confirmation from the Dubai Police who will issue NOCs and only then can we hand over the bodies to the families,” said the source.

He also said that the families of the victims in Pakistan had not been informed because it would pointlessly upset them days before the bodies could actually be sent back home.

The source added that there was no “cover-up” by the company as all top officials were sorting out the facts and deciding about the due compensations for the victims.

Officials from the Pakistan Consulate in Dubai said that official communication from the Dubai Police and details about the dead were still awaited.

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