PUTRAJAYA, Sept 27 — Families of the 55 Malaysians still missing after the Nepal flash flood met with government representatives at Wisma Putra here today for a briefing on the search effort for their loved ones.
The closed-door meeting is for the families to receive details on the search, as well as the verification and identification of victims, more than a month after the disaster.
The meeting involves representatives from the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART), the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), the Chemistry Department, the National Registration Department (JPN), and the Social Welfare Department (JKM).
Today’s session is the second one after the initial one on August 30, five days after the incident, but not all families were present at the time.
On August 30, a closed-door briefing at Wisma Putra was held to collect victims’ next-of-kin’s DNA samples for the identification of bodies recovered in Nepal.
An 11-member SMART team was deployed to Nepal on September 5 for ground searches and drone surveillance, which returned to Malaysia on September 14.
On September 22, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim conveyed the victims’ families’ concerns and hopes to Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah and raised the need for a formal mechanism should the 55 Malaysians remain unaccounted for.
The flash flood at the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26 killed 1,450 people, with thousands still missing.
