A GRANDFATHER on a pilgrimage to his parents’ graves died when his taxi plunged off a cliff in Pakistan.

Gulshad Khan, aged 69, suffered fatal head injuries in the accident, which happened in the Punjab region.

His heartbroken children paid tribute to their “one in a billion” father after winning a fight to have his body flown home.

His devastated daughter Rebecca, aged 27, said: “There is a hole in my heart so big that I will never be able to fill it.”

Son Jason, aged 30, said: “They don’t make many like him. I would say he is more like one in a billion than a million.”

His six children, who also include: Stephen, aged 28; Joseph, aged 32; John, aged 37; and Paul, aged 41, have fought a furious battle with the Pakistani authorities to get their father’s body flown back to the UK.

It is Muslim tradition that people are buried within 24 hours of their death.

Mr Khan, of Parkhills Road, Bury, was travelling in a private hire car to Kashmir with three other family members when the accident happened on March 6.

He was making what the family say he believed would be his final trip to his parents’ graves when the car veered off the road just after midnight local time, around 5pm British time, and fell more than 35ft.

Mr Khan, a retired builder, suffered multiple head injuries and died instantly along with his sister-in-law Parveen, a mother of seven, and the driver.

Mr Khan’s brother Yaqoob and his niece Saira survived the crash.

Rebecca and Stephen were at their Parkhills Road home when they heard their father had been involved in an accident.

Rebecca, who had spoken to her dad just 20 minutes before the crash, said: “I just screamed. I knew straight away. I felt the loss and I just felt empty.”

The former Derby High pupil left school early to care for her dad when his health deteriorated in the late 1990s.

Stephen said: “You will never see a closer father-daughter relationship, they had a special bond. Dad did everything for us. His main loves were travelling and looking after his children and everyone else’s children. He was like Mrs Doubtfire.

“It was a mission impossible to bring him home. But we have beaten all the odds.”

Mr Khan had lived in Bury for more than 40 years with the mother of his children Sylvia Fitzharris, although the pair separated 20 years ago.

He had arrived in Pakistan on February 16 and was due to fly home two days after the accident.

He leaves three grandchildren: Isabella, aged three; Zachariah, aged two; and Jessica, aged six, as well as many family and friends.

Jason added: “He felt like he was still 22, his body was getting old but he was still young at heart. He lived life to the full.”