Grieving Indian father says daughter and son-in-law killed in Abu Dhabi accident lived for their children

Four-month-old grandson in critical condition while young granddaughters survive with fractures

Sadia, 2, and Sidra Begum, 7, survived with fractures and their four-month-old brother Syed is in intensive care after a road accident killed their parents in Abu Dhabi. Photo: Syed Ismail

A devastated father is struggling with the loss of his daughter and son-in-law in a road accident in Abu Dhabi and asks for prayers for his four-month-old grandson who remains in a critical condition with head injuries.

Indian engineer Syed Waheed, 35, and his wife Sana Begum, 27, died when the car he was driving hit a road divider and then smashed into a pole as they were returning from Abu Dhabi to their home in Al Ruwais with their children on Thursday, according to the family.

Their youngest child is in the intensive care unit being treated for head injuries, two daughters, aged seven and two, have been operated for fractures to their legs and relatives have flown in from India to Abu Dhabi to look after the children.

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“They (Sana and Syed) have left us, they are gone, we can do nothing. We can only pray to Allah for the children. I ask everyone to pray for my grandson, he is only four-months-old and has brain injuries,” a distraught Syed Ismail, Ms Begum’s father, told The National from Hyderabad, in southern India.

Mr Waheed worked for a technology company and the couple moved from Abu Dhabi where they lived for five years to Al Ruwais more than a year ago. They had visited Ms Begum’s younger brother who works in Abu Dhabi and were returning home on Thursday when the accident occurred.

Indian engineer Syed Waheed, his wife Sana Begum and their daughter Sidra Begum in Dubai. The parents were killed in a road accident, while Sidra and her two younger siblings survived. Photo: Syed Ismail

The bodies were repatriated to India and the funeral took place on Saturday. The family recently went home to Hyderabad for Ms Begum’s brother’s engagement and had returned to the UAE on July 24.

“We were together for the engagement and had a big celebration. Who would have known they would be taken away from us within days,” Mr Ismail said. “Now we must think only of the children and their well-being.”

Mr Waheed and Ms Begum had made the UAE their home and lived in the country for about seven years.

“Sana was such a good daughter I can’t even speak about how perfect she was,” Mr Ismail said.

“Sana’s dream was to care and look after the children, make sure they study a lot and do well. Her dreams were only for the children, they both wanted to give them the world.”