Pakistan plane crash survivor has Uttar Pradesh and Kamal Amrohi connection

Out of the two survivors in the Pakistan International Airlines plane that crashed near Karachi on Friday, one of them has an India connection.

Zafar Masood, the president of the Bank of Punjab, who survived the crash has roots in western Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha and belongs to the family of Kamal Amrohi of “Pakeezah” fame.

Masood escaped with injuries on his hip and collar bone. His family belongs to Saddo Mohalla in Amroha.

His distant relative Aadil Zaffar, who lives in Amroha, informed that Masood’s family migrated to Pakistan in 1952.

Aadil, who is a documentary filmmaker, is the first cousin of Masood’s mother Sehnaz Saeed. He met Masood in 2015 in Karachi and said the banker is very fond of India and had plans to visit India to see his ancestral home.

“Masood’s miraculous escape was like a gift of Allah to families on both sides ahead of Eid. I informed the family members immediately after the crash. We all were traumatised and shaken because Masood was also travelling in the same plane. The crash was devastating. Then came the news of two survivors and one of them was Masood,” said Aadil.

Presently, Masood is in a hospital undergoing treatment. His family has shared his photograph with their cross border relatives.

Tajdar Amrohi, son of Kamal Amrohi, also expressed his happiness over the miraculous escape of Masood and sent his condolences to the next of kin of those who were killed in the crash. “It was indeed the mercy of god who blessed him with life after such a devastating crash,” said Tajdar.

Aadil Zaffar said that Kamal Amrohi had two cousins: Raees Amrohi and Taqi Amrohi. Taqi was chief editor of Pakistan’s leading Urdu daily ‘Jung’ and Zafar Masood is son of his daughter, Sehnaz Saeed. Masood’s grandfather Masood Hasan was a lawyer and his father Munawwar Sayeed was a popular TV artist of Pakistan.

Masood’s mother Sehnaz last visited Amroha in 2014 and stayed for over a month. Aadil Zaffar had also visited the family in Karachi in 2012, 2014 and 2015. As relations between the two countries deteriorated, family members from both sides stopped visiting.

Both families are descendents of saint Syeed Hussain Sarfuddin Shah Vilayat whose ‘Dargah’ is situated in Amroha and popularly known as ‘Bicchu wali Dargah’.

(With agency inputs)

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