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Abdul Rahman: Relatives, friendsand students turned out yesterdayto pay their last respects to him. |
IPOH: A family outing by the sea on Sunday ended in tragedy when a 15-year-old student drowned at Pasir Panjang, Segari, about 150km from here.
Abdul Rahman Mohd Sirajudeen, a Form Four student of SM St Michael, was pulled by strong undercurrents out to sea where he perished.
His father Mohd Sirajudeen Mohd Mydin, 49, tried to save him but lost consciousness and almost went under. He was pulled back to shore by other picnickers.
Abdul Rahman and his parents, twin brother Abdul Rahim, another brother Syed Meerah, 19, and sister Noor Habiba, 21, had gone to the beach at about 4.30pm.
“While swimming, I noticed the waves getting bigger and I told my family to quickly get out of the sea,” said Mohd Sirajudeen.
“A wave suddenly swept Abdul Rahman and Noor Habiba out to sea,” he said.
Mohd Sirajudeen, a restaurant owner, decided to pull his daughter to shore first as she was closer to him, and he later went back for Abdul Rahman.
“When I reached him, he held me very tightly and I could not move. At that moment I noticed that my legs could not touch the seabed,” he said.
A strong undercurrent then pulled father and son out to sea, and that was when Mohd Sirajudeen passed out.
“When I awoke, I was at the Manjung district hospital,” he said.
Mohd Sirajudeen said a friend who had recommended the picnic spot had warned him not to swim there.
Abdul Rahman’s body was recovered at 9.50am yesterday by a team of divers from the Manjung district Fire and Rescue Department and the Marine Police.
“My son was a brilliant, jovial and active boy. Now he is gone,” Mohd Sirajudeen said when met at the Indian Muslim mosque in Jalan S.P. Seenivasagam here.
Abdul Rahman’s mother Kilijan Beebi, 40, and other family members were too distraught to speak to the media.
Some 1,000 relatives, friends and students from the school turned out yesterday to pay their last respects.
SM St Michael principal Louis Rozario Doss said Abdul Rahman was a brilliant student who scored seven As and one B in his PMR exams last year, and was a member of the school military band and the English debating team.
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