Double jeopardy for Kurban family

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Even as Paria Fuel Trading Company began using water displacement to move the bodies of the four divers, anxious relatives were still hoping that the divers were alive.

Haffeza Kurban-Hyatali, the sister of one of the missing divers Fyzal Kurban burst into tears when she heard that Paria had decided to flush out the lines.

“It is three days and I know he is alive,” she wept, hours before getting the news that three of the four bodies were found.

She added, “I am not giving up hope. He is one of the best divers. I know he will be alive and they will get him out. Jonah was in the belly of a whale for three days and three nights. So, too, Fyzal will come out because he is a God-fearing man.”

She also said that Fyzal’s disappearance was déjà vu as 37 years ago, their father Ramjohn Kurban died along with 13 others when an offshore platform went up in flames.

That incident, which occurred on October 17, 1985, was deemed one of the worse industrial accidents of T&T’s history.

Kurban-Hyatali said despite his father’s untimely death, Fyzal took up diving and was so good at it that he trained many other divers over the past 30 years.

As the relatives of the other divers stayed at the car park of Paria Fuel Trading Company hoping to hear from company officials, a broadcast of the press conference held by Energy Minister Stuart Young brought many of them to tears.

Some of them declined to comment saying their attorneys had advised them to be careful and not speak to the media.

Meanwhile, Fyzal’s niece Fariah Hyatali said relatives were upset at the way the matter was handled. She said the aborting of a rescue mission should never have happened.

“This is totally ridiculous that the family has to wait three days for a response. This happened to our family in 1985 when there was a ship explosion but bodies were recovered in a day’s time back then but in 2022, the bodies are not recovered in three days’ time.

We are still waiting and nothing has happened. No one has spoken to the family. This is unacceptable,” Hyatali said.

She added that the company had not given any support to the family.

“It is the OWTU, activists and well-wishers who have been offering support,” she said. On Sunday night, Paria’s general manager Mushtaq Mohammed said the recovery operations will begin on Monday using a water displacement method to move the bodies out of the 30-inch submarine pipeline.

The decision to use water displacement was taken without any consultation with relatives.

Mohammed told the media that the decision was taken following a meeting with Paria, LMCS, the Coast Guard and two independent diving experts.

He said the company sent probes into the horseshoe-shaped line but it encountered something at a certain depth and could go no further.