Lanka blasts: Indian-origin victim had roots in Kerala

Lanka blasts: Indian-origin victim had roots in Kerala

Colombo, April 22, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Police and investigators work at a blast scene at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. The death toll from the multiple blasts that ripped through Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 228 while 450 others were injured, local media quoting hospital sources said. (Xinhua/Wang Shen/IANS)

New Delhi, April 22 (IANS) S. Razeena, who died in a bomb blast at Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo on Sunday, had roots in Kerala.

A Sri Lankan national of Indian-origin and lately settled in Dubai, the 58-year-old woman was on a holiday in Colombo when terror struck, her family sources told IANS here on Monday.

She was buried in Colombo on Monday.

Shangri La was among several places attacked by terrorists in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing 290 people and injuring hundreds of others.

According to media reports, the bomb attack at the hotel took place at around 9 a.m. in one of its restaurants.

Razeena was in Sri Lanka to meet up with relatives and friends, the sources said, adding she had planned this holiday over months.

Her family hailed from Mogaral, now in Kasargod district of Kerala. Her father P.S. Abdullah moved to Vavuniya in northern Sri Lanka in the 1940s for trade and soon settled there.

Razeena grew up and went to school in Sri Lanka but studied for bachelor's degree from St. Agnes College, Mangalore.

She was married to Kukkadi Abdul Khader, an IIT engineer from a highly-educated family of Mangalore. She lived her married life at various places across the world, including Tripoli, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Gabon - where her husband worked over years.

They have two children, Khanfer and Farah, who are both settled in the US.

Razeena and Khader had recently settled down in Dubai.

Through her mother Zekkibi, who was from an illustrious family of scholars in Kasaragod, Razeena was second cousin to Nagma M. Mallick, a senior Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, who was till recently India's High Commissioner in Brunei Darussalam and is now posted in Delhi.

--IANS

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