Woman Fights to Bring Her Husband’s Body Back from Saudi Arabia

Mohammad Afsar Ansari was allegedly beaten to death by his Saudi employer more than a year back.

File photo of an Indian labourer in Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Reuters)

Mohammed Afsar Ansari, a young man from Jharkhand had left for Saudi Arabia two years ago in the hope of getting a well-paying job to ensure the economic future of his family. But he never made it back to India.

Ansari who worked as a bulldozer operator in Riyadh was allegedly assaulted by his employer which led to his death on 3 March 2015 when he asked to be allowed to go home.

His 25-year-old widow, Noushaba Bano filed a contempt petition at the Delhi High Court, in the first week of April, to bring her husband’s body back.

The petition came after the government and the Indian High Commission in Saudi Arabia failed to act on an order from the high court in December that directed the centre to ensure that Ansari’s body is brought back.

According to India Today , Bano’s petition states that Ansari along with other two workers was taken by force and thrashed for wanting to return home.

We got to know from his colleagues that they hit him hard and he succumbed to his injuries. They even shot a video and showed it to other employees to intimidate them so that they never speak of returning to India.

Mukhtar, Ansari’s brother

Bano told the court that she doesn’t want husband’s body to be buried in Saudi Arabia but to be brought back to India. Ansari’s family is worried that if his body is not brought to the country, then it will be buried in Saudi Arabia since the gulf country does not preserve dead bodies for more than a year.

Within the limits of Saudi law, our Embassy in Riyadh has been engaged with the matter of the death of Shri Mohammad Afsar continually since 26.3.2015 when they were informed of it by his brother who is also working in Saudi Arabia. The Embassy had assisted the brother of the deceased in filing the complaint with the Bureau of Investigation (BoI) into the cause of death. Following this, our Embassy officials visited BoI several times between April and December 2015. With great difficulty and against the usual practice, we managed to persuade BoI to agree to a second post-mortem and another investigation. In March 2016, we requested the Saudi Foreign Office to share with us the outcome of this second post-mortem. We await the full details of this report and of the further investigations.  

<b>Indian Government Sources</b>

The highest number of complaints received by Indian missions until November this year was 3,236 in Kuwait, followed by 2,472 in Saudi Arabia.

Excerpt from <i>India Today</i>

This is not the first instance of cruelty on Indian workers in Saudi Arabia. In a shocking incident, the hand of a 58-year-old domestic help from Kerala was cut off when she tried to flee the home of her employers.

Also Read:

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• Three Indian Workers Beaten up by Saudi Employer