Offloaded body of Indian pilgrim still in Oman

Muscat: An Indian Umrah pilgrim’s body offloaded from a Saudi plane in Oman is still in Muscat.
The victim identified as Muhammed Abdul Muthalip, 63, from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, was returning from Jeddah on Thursday morning with his family after a pilgrimage.
As he passed away onboard, the flight made an emergency landing in Muscat and the body was offloaded. “As the holidays are on, the paper work to take the body back to India is stuck,” Maqsoob Sahib, the Umrah group leader, told the Times of Oman.
“We will be able to do something only on Sunday. Saudi, Oman and Indian officials have to co-ordinate the repatriation of the body,” Sahib added. The victim was flying with his family and group to India from Jeddah. Sahib told the Times of Oman that Muhammed was a diabetes patient and was also suffering from fever.
“He had fever. We treated him at Saudi airport. He was fine to fly. We saw him sleeping onboard. Later on, we discovered that he had passed away. So, we informed the crew, and as the aircraft was in Oman airspace it made an emergency landing and offloaded the body,” Maqsoob said.
“Muhammed’s wife and relatives were also onboard. However, they continued their flight. They could not land because of visa issues,” Maqsoob said, adding he was co-ordinating with Saudi, Indian and Oman officials to sort out the issue.