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KUALA LUMPUR - S. Dhinesh performed the last rites for his mother, Hemalatha Kassippillai, the Mumbai terror victim, at the Jalan Loke Yew crematorium yesterday.
Hemalatha's family waited for Dhinesh, 18, and his sister, Nishalini, 19, to return from Russia where they are studying medicine, before going ahead with the funeral.
At their family home in Bangsar Baru, more than 100 relatives, friends and politicians turned up to pay their last respects to the Malaysian victim who perished in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Among the VIPs were Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator T. Murugiah and Lembah Pantai member of parliament Nurul Izzah Anwar.
The mood was solemn as family members, colleagues and friends came together from across Malaysia and overseas to mourn Hemalatha's tragic death.
Most were still in shock and many were outraged at the brutal attack which killed 172 people.
"I can't believe she's gone. She doesn't deserve to go like this," said a distraught colleague.
Hemalatha's former secondary school teacher said she could not understand how anyone could take other people's lives. "It's cruel and horrifying," said the former teacher, Faridah Khalid.
The cortege left the house at 4.30pm.
At the crematorium, Dhinesh and his father, K. Sivakumaran, were composed as they walked around the funeral pyre three times before setting it alight according to Hindu rites. Nishalini also followed the funeral procession and was constantly consoled by her aunt, K. Malathi.
Hemalatha, 51, was a sales service manager with German insurance firm Hannover Rueckversicherung AG (Malaysia). She was in Mumbai on official duties when the terrorists struck at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where she was staying in room 637.
She was not accounted for when most of the hostages at the hotel were freed.
Her body was found after the seige, more than 60 hours after it began, in the room. The body was reportedly charred.
Sivakumaran and Hemalatha's brother, K. Ratna Raja, rushed to Mumbai to look for her but later identified her body in the mortuary.
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