Arab News | How Houthi attack turned Indian family’s Umrah into tragedy

NEW DELHI: Mohammad Yousuf Ali and his elder son went to buy juice while the rest of the family waited for their flight to Madinah. They were only a few hundred meters away when a Houthi projectile hit the area and left them severely wounded.

Both were taken to hospital, the father in critical condition.

“Yousuf died. One of his legs was completely cut and he died on the second day,” his cousin and neighbor, Mohammad Akbar Hashmi, told Arab News.

He was among 13 people killed in the Oct. 10 attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. Another 300 were wounded.

The Hyderabad native was an IT engineer working between Saudi Arabia and India. When he was back home this time, he decided the next trip would be with the whole family.

The father, mother, two sons, daughter and aunt were traveling for Umrah.

It was their first pilgrimage together — a trip to celebrate the elder son’s success in passing exams to study engineering.

“The Umrah was planned after his elder son took admission to the engineering college. It was a way of expressing gratitude towards God,” Hashmi said.

The boys remain in hospital. The daughter and aunt had lighter injuries and have since been discharged. The wife was the only one who did not require hospitalization.

“She is stable and taking care of the kids in the hospital,” Hashmi said.

“(The) elder son’s kneecaps were both replaced, and his stomach was operated on because broken glass had penetrated into the stomach and touched the liver.”  

He will remain in the hospital for another three weeks. He and his siblings have already been informed about the father’s death.

“I cannot describe the state of shock to the whole family … They lost everything,” Hashmi said.

“This attack by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia is wrong; this is totally wrong. Targeting the civilian airport, malls … there is no justification for that.”