‘In shock': British Indians mourn Air India crash victims at London vigil
LONDON - Dozens of members of Britain's Indian community gathered at a Hindu temple in London on June 14 for a vigil mourning the victims of this week's Air India crash, many of whom had personal connections to the temple.
Leaders from the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Muslim, Parsi, Zoroastrian and other communities offered their prayers, as those in attendance, hands folded, recited chants.
A representative of Britain's King Charles read out a message from him and offered Christian prayers.
Mr Rajrajeshwar Guruji, head of the Siddhashram Hindu temple in Harrow, likened the grief of those who lost family members in the crash of the London-bound flight to the wait for a loved one's return from an endless journey.
'They're just waiting and waiting, now they are not going to come back again,' he said in an interview.
Mr Guruji, who comes from the state of Gujarat where the plane crashed, said the temple had helped family members in Britain get information about their loved ones.
'Some of the members... I have spoken to them, and... they don't have the words,' he said.
'They are in shock.'
Britain has one of the largest Indian communities outside India, with nearly 1.69 million people - or 3.1 per cent of the population - identifying as ethnically Indian.
'We believe that everyone who is born has to go one day. But I hope nobody goes the way these... passengers, as well as the medical students, have gone,' said Harrow Mayor Anjana Patel, who lost a family member.
Only one of the 242 passengers and crew on board survived the crash, while others were killed when the plane struck a medical college's hostel.
Ms Patel told Reuters that the council was offering grief counselling.
'We just cannot bear how people must be feeling,' she said.
Ms Jyotsna Shukla, 66, said her son's childhood friend was on the plane with his wife and three children.
'I feel very bad because he was so young,' she said, before breaking down into tears.
Among those killed was Mr Vijay Rupani, a former chief minister of Gujarat, who had visited the temple. REUTERS
Worshippers attending a memorial service for the crash victims at Neasden Temple, in north-west London, on June 13.
PHOTO: AFP
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
4 hours ago
- Straits Times
Over 170 charities call for end to deadly new Gaza aid distribution system
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo GENEVA - More than 170 non-governmental organisations called on Tuesday for a U.S.- and Israeli-backed food aid distribution scheme in Gaza to be dismantled over concerns it is putting civilians at risk of death and injury. More than 500 people have been killed in mass shootings near aid distribution centres or transport routes guarded by Israeli forces since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating in late May, according to medical authorities in Gaza. The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid. The United Nations has called the plan "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. As of early afternoon in Geneva on Tuesday, where the joint declaration was released, 171 charities had signed onto the call for countries to press Israel to halt the GHF scheme and reinstate aid coordinated through the United Nations. "Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families," the statement said. Groups signing it included Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Amnesty a response, the GHF told Reuters it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and said other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted". "Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza," the GHF told Reuters. The NGOs accused the GHF of forcing hungry and weak people to trek for hours, sometimes through active conflict zones, to receive food aid. The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called "lessons learned". Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the centres in order to prevent the aid from falling into the hands of Palestinian Hamas militants. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Straits Times
Food supplies to some Sudan refugees could dry up within 2 months, WFP says
FILE PHOTO: Displaced people ride a an animal-drawn cart, following Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacks on Zamzam displacement camp, in the town of Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Food supplies to some Sudan refugees could dry up within 2 months, WFP says GENEVA - Food aid to help Sudanese refugees in four neighbouring countries could end within the next couple of months without an urgent injection of new funding, a World Food Programme official said on Tuesday, warning of rising malnutrition levels. Over 4 million refugees have fled Sudan's more than two-year civil war to seven neighbouring countries where shelter conditions are widely viewed as inadequate due to chronic funding shortages. "Unless new funding is secured, all refugees will face assistance cuts in the coming months," Shaun Hughes, the WFP's emergency coordinator for the Sudan regional crisis, told a Geneva press briefing, calling for $200 million over six months. "In the case of four countries - that's the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya - WFP's operations are now so severely underfunded, that all support could cease in the coming months as resources run dry," he said, clarifying later that this could happen within two months. Many of those fleeing are escaping from hunger hot spots in Sudan. A joint U.N. report said last month the country was at immediate risk of famine. Hughes said that any reduction or end to rations would leave child refugees at a greater risk of malnutrition. Asked why the funding had fallen, he cited reductions from donors across the board and rising humanitarian needs. He added that the United States, which has reduced its foreign aid spending dramatically under President Donald Trump, remained its top donor for Sudan. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
Air India plane crash probe looking at all angles: Minister
The minister said that until the investigation report is published, it would be premature to comment on the cause. PHOTO: REUTERS NEW DELHI - An Indian aviation minister on June 29 said investigators were probing 'all angles' behind an Air India crash when asked by media about possible sabotage. All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner were killed when it crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad on June 12. The authorities have identified 19 others who died on the ground, but a police source told AFP after the crash that the toll was 38. India's Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Mr Murlidhar Mohol, said the investigation was looking at 'all angles' when asked specifically about possible 'sabotage', in an interview with Indian news channel NDTV. 'It has never happened before that both engines have shut off together,' Mr Mohol said earlier in the interview, in reference to theories by some experts of possible dual-engine failure. The minister added that until the investigation report is published, it would be premature to comment on the cause. The team appointed to investigate the crash started extracting data from the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders this week, in an attempt to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the disaster. Air India has said that the plane was 'well-maintained' and that the pilots were accomplished flyers. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
