Chennai: Amid heightened India-Pakistan tensions over Pahalgam attack, the body of a Pakistani national who died in a Chennai hospital last week was sent to the country via Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Syed Aryan Shah, who died at a private hospital in Aminjikarai area here on April 25, had been admitted on February 12 this year. According to the hospital authorities, the 23-year-old was suffering from interstitial lung disease and had been on ECMO (a kind of life support) for 70 days until he passed away on the evening of April 25. The patient was in India on a medical visa to treat his lung and heart problems and was accompanied by two other Pakistani nationals.
Following his death, immigration authorities and Tamil Nadu Police started the process to send the body back to Pakistan. While two Pakistanis who accompanied Shah were sent back to Lahore via Abu Dhabi on April 28, the body of the deceased youth was sent from Chennai to Colombo on a Sri Lankan Airlines passenger flight.
On Monday morning, it was flown from Colombo to Lahore, the immigration department officials said. Authorities here in Chennai had carried out the post-mortem and other formalities before sending the body back.
The deceased's parents had appealed authorities in Pakistan to contact their Indian counterparts to help them get the body transported. As per local reports, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti had taken notice of the parents' appeal and contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make arrangements for the body's return.
The young patient's demise took place amid strained India-Pakistan ties against the backdrop of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 25 tourists and a local Kashmiri were killed.
Following the dastardly attack allegedly by terrorists affiliated with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, India took some major steps, including putting the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance and also ordering all Pakistanis in India to leave the country.
While April 29 was the deadline for Pakistani nationals holding medical visas, all other existing Indian visas issued to Pakistani nationals were revoked on April 27.
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