Indian expat among Shangri-La victims
ADubai-based Indian expatriate was among those killed in the serial blasts in Colombo on Sunday. The 61-year-old woman’s family is in a state of shock after learning that she was killed in the blast at the Shangri-La Hotel. P.S. Razina hailed from Kasaragod in the south Indian state of Kerala. Sources close to the family said Razina and her husband, Abdul Khader Kukkady, had gone to Sri Lanka to visit some relatives.
On the morning of the tragedy, she dropped him off to the Colombo International Airport and he took a flight back to Dubai.
Razina returned to the ShangriLa Hotel to check-out so she could spend time with her brother and family, who are based in Sri Lanka. Soon after, a blast ripped through the hotel, killing Razina and several others. The deceased was originally from Sri Lanka and moved to India after her marriage to Kukkady.
The couple lived in countries across the Middle East before settling down in Dubai a few years ago. Their children are settled in the United States.
Haris Beeran, who is Razina’s brother’s son-in-law, told Khaleej
Times: “Razina and her husband were in Sri Lanka to meet her brother, Basheer, my father-inlaw. She would visit Sri Lanka often to meet her brother, cousins and other family members. My father-in-law, along with Razina, dropped her husband to the airport and returned to the hotel.”
The family are hoping to bring back Razina’s mortal remains back to Kerala.
“Her husband is flying to Colombo to take her remains back to Kerala,” said Beeran.
“My father-in-law is shattered as he was the one to have seen her last and dropped her to the hotel. It’s very, very tragic.”