Aged Kashmiri woman waits for 12 hrs for flight, dies at a hotel in Delhi

Ishfaq Tantry
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, February 9

For three days, Zaina Bano of Shopian district waited at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport to be flown to Kashmir as her flight on February 6 was cancelled due to heavy snowfall in the Valley.

But now, her body would be flown to Srinagar on Sunday morning as Zaina died at her hotel in Delhi around midnight.

On Friday, she waited for 12 hours at the IGI Airport for an additional Air India flight, but the flight wasn’t arranged.

Zaina, 70, hailing from Shopian district had landed at the IGI Airport on February 6 after performing umrah at Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

“After spending the whole day on Friday at the airport along with her husband, the woman returned to her hotel at Mahipalpur around 11.30 pm, exhausted,” said Fayaz Ahmad Chapoo, the local tour operator in Shopian who had arranged their travel to Saudi Arabia.

The woman, however, expired at the hotel around midnight, Chapoo said, adding that despite strenuous efforts and requests, Air India on Saturday refused to take her body to Srinagar in an additional flight, citing rules and regulations.

As per the death certificate issued by AIIMS, New Delhi, the woman was brought dead to the hospital and had suffered respiratory acidosis with severe hyperkalemia.

The woman and her elderly husband were kept waiting at the IGI for 12 hours on Friday before they were sent back around 9:30 pm.