Rosmah: Our family had a close and personal relationship with tahfiz fire victims

PUTRAJAYA: The victims who had perished in the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz fire in Datuk Keramat, Kuala Lumpur were personally known to her family, said Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

Rosmah, who is the wife of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, said her family had a close relationship with the tahfiz students, who were regular guests at her family's Taman Duta home for the past few years.

"They would come every Thursday night to recite the Quran, Yasin and peform special prayers. 

During Ramadan, they will join us for the terawih prayers.

"My family and I feel very sad when we recall our times together with the students.

I can still remember their innocent and happy faces," she said when presenting donations to the victims' families at Seri Perdana on Thursday.

The victims' families and surviving students received contributions from Bakti, Tabung Kesejahteraan Kanak-Kanak Sedunia and a donor who wish to remain anonymous.

Najib and Rosmah were in Washington DC during the Sept 14 ill-fated incident which also killed two of the school's teachers.

"When we reached Kuala Lumpur, we rushed to the scene. I was overwhelmed with emotions seeing the condition of the school," she said.

Hartini Abd Ghani, whose son Nik Mohamed Ridzuan Nik Azalan,12, perished in the fire said the boy often told her how excited he was to be going to the Prime Minister's house.

"He told me that he enjoyed the trips as the people are friendly, food is good and they would get pocket money.

"He enjoyed it so much so that if I want to take him out on a Thursday, Ridzuan would flatly refuse," said the 48-year-old mother of seven.

Hartini said a day before the incident, her son called to remind her to send a set of fresh clothes as they would be going to the PM's house the next day.

That trip was not meant to be. It was also the last time Hartini saw her son when she dropped off his clothes at 10pm on Sept 13.

Hartini said her family was still coping with Nik Mohamed Ridzuan's death and that her youngest, 11-year-old Nik Mohamed Imran, was the most affected.

"Imran is also a student at the school but he was on medical leave when the incident happened.

"Now, he refuses to go back to school.

He hardly talks and spends a lot of time watching video clips of the episode," she added.