Authorities start handing over remains of Air India crash victims to relatives
One passenger survived.
Relatives grieve as they attend the funeral of Shubh Modi and his sister Shagun Modi, both victims of the Air India plane crash, at a crematorium in Ahmedabad, India (Rafiq Maqbool/AP)
Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims provided DNA samples at hospital.
Most of the bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognisable.
Rajneesh Patel, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said authorities have so far identified 32 victims through DNA mapping and their families were informed.
He said the remains of 14 victims were handed over to relatives.
The victims' families waited outside the hospital mortuary as authorities worked to complete formalities and transfer the bodies in coffins into ambulances.
Most of them have expressed frustration at the slow pace of the identification process.
Authorities say it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching and they are expediting the process.
Alongside the formal investigation, the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash.
Investigators come out after visiting the Air India plane crash site in Ahmedabad, India (Ajit Solanki/AP)
The committee will focus on formulating procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Saturday.
Authorities have also begun inspecting Air India's entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, minister of civil aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Saturday in New Delhi at his first news briefing since Thursday's crash.
Eight of the 34 Dreamliners in India have already undergone inspection, Mr Kinjarapu said, adding that the remaining aircraft will be examined with 'immediate urgency'.
Investigators on Friday recovered the plane's digital flight data recorder, or the black box, from a rooftop near the crash site.
The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The plane that crashed was 12 years old.
Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft.
There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.
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EXCLUSIVE Revealed: How Rochdale social services workers failed two teenage girls who were repeatedly raped by Asian men - as Tories renew call for new grooming gangs inquiry
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'Keir Starmer doesn't want one to happen because he knows Labour activists at every level have covered up Asian grooming gangs because they were afraid of upsetting the Muslim vote. 'That's totally unacceptable.' Sharon Hubber, director of children's services at Rochdale Borough Council, told MailOnline: 'We know that these convictions are unlikely to erase the memories of the abuse these women were subjected to as children, but we hope they do bring some form of closure. 'We know that more could and should have been done by the people who were working here at the time and for that we are truly sorry.' Previous trials have heard how a network of depraved taxi drivers and takeaway staff - mainly from Rochdale's Pakistani community - passed around vulnerable girls and sexually abused them. But this one revealed another location tainted by grooming gangs – the town's markets. Dating back to the award of a charter in 1251, Rochdale's market has been a source of prosperity and pride for centuries. But its popularity with young girls in particularly would be exploited by Mohammed Zahid, who was dubbed 'Knickerman' for the underwear stall which he ran. The ringleader of the latest grooming gang to face justice, the unassuming father-of-three preferred to be known as 'Bossman'. Since the gang was operating in the early 2000s, Rochdale's markets have regularly been threatened with closure, with stall numbers dwindling. Traders who still recall Zahid branded him a 'pest' and a 'creep' – but said they had no idea he was using his stall to groom girls. 'He had a real reputation for chasing women,' said one. 'He was always offering them free stuff, especially young girls. 'I know there was a lot of women who bought lingerie off him but would never go back because of the way he made them feel. 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The second trial concluded today with a further seven men convicted for abusing the same survivor – Girl A - and a third victim, Girl B. Five more trials are planned, all relating to abuse from the early 2000s. Senior detectives today accused the latest grooming gang of targeting girls with 'unimaginable depravity'. Paying tribute to the bravery of the victims for testifying against the gang, Detective Superintendent Alan Clitherow, head of GMP's Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team, said police wanted to reassure grooming survivors 'you will be believed'. 'We've acknowledged in the past that we haven't served victims the way we should have done,' he said. 'But now we've invested in learning, we're getting better, and we've got specialist officers dealing with victims, which is really important. 'I really want to pay tribute to both victims, the bravery and dignity to stand up in court and talk about the abuse that they've endured is incredible.' Defending the time it has taken for the cases to come to court, a detective on the case said investigating allegations from 20 years ago was 'massively challenging'. Timeline of the Rochdale grooming gang scandals 2008 - A 15-year-old girl reports to police she has been raped repeatedly by a gang of men, and gives details of the abuse taking place above a takeaway in Rochdale. Police arrest two members of a grooming gang - ringleader Shabir Ahmed and Kabeer Hassan. 2009 - Police find evidence that Ahmed had sex with the girl, with the older man claiming she could have swapped underwear with a different young girl he had already admitted to having sex with. 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This sparks apologies from the police, council and CPS for failures that allowed the men to continue abusing girls for an additional two years. 2013 - Maggie Oliver resigns from Greater Manchester Police, claiming that evidence was ignored that could have convicted men who weren't part of the nine jailed the year before. 2016 - A second group of men are sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for sexual abuse after a victim, encouraged by previous convictions, comes forward with her ordeal. 2017 - A BBC documentary titled The Betrayed Girls features whistleblowers Ms Oliver and Sara Rowbothan, who ran an NHS sexual health clinic in Rochdale, with claims about grooming gangs. Both alleged that multiple known abusers were left free to prey on a generation of girls, with grooming culture embedded in parts of the town. The same year Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, orders a series of reports into how victims were protected up to 2013. 2023 - Five men are given sentences totalling more than 70 years after being found guilty of abusing two girls between 2002 and 2006. 2024 - The third of four reports into grooming gangs - and the first to focus on Rochdale - is released and points the finger at police and council bosses for failing to protect girls from their abusers. 'You don't have the golden hour, the initial opportunities that you do in a in the investigation where a crime just happened,' he said. 'There's no CCTV, limited phone work. Digital evidence goes out of the window, forensic evidence, it doesn't exist. 'You're relying massively on what the victims are telling you, and you're having to trawl through historical records. 'That's a challenge as well, because they get lost, they get deleted, they get purged.' 'So it's incredibly challenging for the investigation and for the victims.' Detectives on a special unit tasked with investigating major sex abuse rings worked with specialist prosecutors to split the case into multiple trials – each lasting several months - to make them manageable for jurors. 'Where we get a result for a victim and we get some justice, we hope that that for another victim it gives them the courage to take that step,' said Senior district Crown prosecutor Christopher Trotter. 'It's not going to prevent that trauma impacting their whole life, but it may bring some justice and have some impact to being able to move forward.' However court delays and over-running trials have also slowed the process of securing justice. A report into the Rochdale grooming gangs scandal ordered by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham last year found a generation of girls had been failed. Its lead author, child protection specialist Malcolm Newsam, identified 96 men who are still deemed a potential risk to children. He concluded that two 'lone voices' - Sara Rowbotham, co-ordinator of a young people's Crisis Intervention Team, and Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Detective Constable turned whistleblower - had flagged clear evidence of 'prolific serial rape of countless children in Rochdale'. But this was not acted upon, with the children's unwillingness to make a formal complaint repeatedly used as an excuse for not investigating. 'GMP and Rochdale Council failed to prioritise the protection of children who were being sexually exploited by a significant number of men within the Rochdale area,' Mr Newsam wrote. 'Successive police operations were launched over this period, but these were insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation. 'Consequently, children were left at risk and many of their abusers to this day have not been apprehended.' At the time, Mr Burnham called the report 'a detailed and distressing account of how many young people were so seriously failed'. Rochdale Council leader Councillor Neil Emmott said the authority was 'deeply sorry' for the 'very serious failures that affected the lives of children in our borough' and how officials 'failed to take the necessary action'. And Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Stephen Watson said it was 'a matter of profound regret' that victims of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale in the early 2000s were 'failed' by the force. A series of initiatives have taken place around Rochdale since 2012, including better engagement with potential victims and a scheme encouraging hotel owners and taxi firms to report concerns. Last year, an Ofsted report into Rochdale Council said 'children at risk receive an effective response'. But following the report, Ms Oliver hit out at more than a decade of 'failures, lies and cover ups'. She has since set up a foundation to help victims of child sex abuse, saying it see 'on a daily basis that victims and survivors of sexual offences are still routinely treated badly or even inhumanely, still not believed, still judged, still dismissed when they report these horrendous crimes'. Sharon Hubber, director of children's services, said: 'We know that these convictions are unlikely to erase the memories of the abuse these women were subjected to as children, but we hope they do bring some form of closure. We know that more could and should have been done by the people who were working here at the time and for that we are truly sorry.'
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
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SUE REID: I uncovered the grooming gangs scandal 15 years ago - and was vilified by the Left. Now I've been entirely vindicated, but I fear this repugnant crime is still going on today...
At last Sir Keir Starmer has announced a national inquiry into the mass-rape gangs prowling the streets of our towns and cities to target young girls for sex. And not before time. His dramatic U-turn follows months of Government reluctance to launch a country-wide probe into the so-called 'grooming' scandal that has shamed Britain for decades. Street rape gangs have operated in the North, the South, the Midlands. There are thousands of girl victims, mostly underage, mostly white. But make no mistake: youngsters of all creeds and colours (including boys) have been damaged by this repugnant, out-of-control crime which I fear is ongoing today.
