BENGALURU: The family of Shehzadi Khan, the 33-year-old woman from Banda district in Uttar Pradesh who was executed on February 15 in Abu Dhabi for the death of a four-month-old child under her care, will not be going to Abu Dhabi for her final rites. Instead, they have requested the authorities in Abu Dhabi through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to conduct her last rites and share the photographs with the family. Speaking exclusively to TNIE over the phone from Delhi, Shehzadi’s elder brother Shamsher Khan said that the MEA has reached out to the family and assured that they would make arrangements for them to go to Abu Dhabi for her last rites. “But, what is the point of going there now? The MEA could have been more proactive in Shehzadi’s case and alerted us to get appropriate legal arrangements for her earlier. My sister’s life could have been spared. She was trafficked by Uzair from Agra, tortured by her employers in Abu Dhabi and implicated in a false case of the death of their child. We spent Rs 50,000 for filing an appeal in the court when we came to know that she is no more,” grieved Shamsher, who works as a fabricator in Mumbai.Shehzadi’s father Shabbir expressed the family’s anguish at the “injustice” meted out to his daughter and blamed the Abu Dhabi authorities and MEA for informing them about her execution more than 15 days later. “We came to know on Monday, March 3, at 4 pm that they had executed her on February 15 in Abu Dhabi following our plea in the Delhi High Court. We offered Fateha (prayers for the deceased) in our village last evening. Tomorrow they will bury her there. How can we go at such a short notice and what is the point now? She did not get justice from anywhere. We have requested the authorities in Abu Dhabi through the Indian embassy there to share photographs of her final rites,” said Shabbir, a farmer from village Goyra Mugli in Banda district.According to the family, Shehzadi last spoke to her parents from Abu Dhabi’s Al Wathba jail, where she was lodged, between 12 and 12.30am on February 15. She was executed soon thereafter. “Hamara time khatam ho gaya, papa. Unhon ne hummey dossrey kamrey mein shift kar diya hai. Time nahi hai hamarey paas (my time is over. They (prison authorities) have shifted me to another cell. I don’t have time),” sobbed Shehzadi on the phone while speaking to her parents.
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