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Remains of Lankan students to be brought back home from Azerbaijan
The Sri Lankan Mission in Iran is coordinating with relevant authorities in Azerbaijan to repatriate the remains of the three Sri Lankan university students who were killed due to suffocation after a fire at their apartment on Thursday.
Young lives snuffed out: L to R: Tharuki Amaya, Malsha Sandeepani and Hansi Madubashini
Sri Lanka has no diplomatic presence in Azerbaijan and as such, the Sri Lankan Mission in Tehran and the Azerbaijan’s Embassy in New Delhi are coordinating efforts to repatriate the remains of the deceased students to Sri Lanka, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
The Ministry stated that the three female students died as a result of suffocation from smoke inhalation due to a fire at their apartment in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku. Authorities in the country have initiated an investigation into the incident, the Ministry added.
The students had been studying at the Western Caspian University in Baku.
The victims were identified yesterday as sisters Malsha Sandeepani (23) and Tharuki Amaya (21) of Bokundara, Mahawatta and Hansi Madubashini (25) of Pahala Bomiriya, Kaduwela.
Malsha and Tharuki were past pupils of Lumbini Vidyalaya, Colombo while Hansi was an old girl of Bomiriya Central College.
At the home of Malsha and Tharuki in Bokundara yesterday, shocked family members and relatives were trying to come to terms with the deaths of two young girls in the prime of life.
Malsha had been following a degree in IT while her younger sister Tharuki was following her passion for fashion design. They were living with their friend Hansi at an apartment in Baku when the tragedy occurred.
Their father Nishan Sanjeewa (48) was distraught after losing his only children. He said he had sent his two daughters to Azerbaijan through an education agency in Kollupitiya in August last year.
“It was the agent who informed us on Friday morning that they had met with this accident on Thursday evening,” he said.
“We have heard that the cause of death could be the result of suffocation, but proper clues have not been revealed and they say there aren’t any visible injuries on the bodies,” the father added.
Heart broken father: Nishan Sanjeewa
In shock:Saman Gunasiri, Priyanka’s husband and daughter. Pix by Amila Gamage
Mr. Sanjeewa implored authorities to take all necessary measures to repatriate the remains of his children and their friend quickly.
The students were following a pre university English Language course at Western Caspian University and were living in a two- storey residential building as they were not entitled to hostel facilities according to university rules. They had been living at this apartment for two months. Meanwhile, issuing a statement to Azerbaijan news agency Report.az confirming that Malsha Sandeepani and Tharuki Amaya were its students, Western Caspian University stated that “As a rule, foreigners apply for these courses individually or through various agencies providing services in this area. In this case, the Sri Lankan women applied through the Agency to participate in preparatory English courses at Western Caspian University.
The University provided them with information about the conditions of the introductory sessions, as well as informed them that the University does not have a hostel and does not offer a service for renting apartments.”
As such, the university stated that the students “came to Azerbaijan, rented apartments and lived there on their own.”
The university added that it was “deeply saddened by this tragedy and extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the foreigners.”
