Pakistan sends aircraft to Tehran to repatriate bodies of its 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in bus crash

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan on Friday sent an aircraft to Tehran to repatriate the bodies of 28 Shiite pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran while traveling to Iraq this week, officials said.

The plane will also bring home 23 pilgrims who were injured in the accident Tuesday night that happened in the central Iranian province of Yazd, said Nasir Shah, a government spokesman in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

All the dead and injured pilgrims hailed from various districts in Sindh, he said.

Shah’s comments came hours before Iranian officials handed over the bodies of the victims of the crash to Pakistani diplomats after their funeral on Friday.

Pakistan’s state-run TV showed Iranians and Pakistanis attending the funeral of the victims in Iran.

Shah said all arrangements were in place to hand over the bodies to their relatives, while the injured would be taken to a hospital after the plane lands at an airport after midnight.

The pilgrims had been on their way to Iraq to commemorate Arbaeen at the time of teh crash.

Arbaeen — Arabic for the number 40 — marks the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, at the hands of the Muslim Umayyad forces in the Battle of Karbala, during the tumultuous 1st century of Islam’s history.