Family leaving for Japan to bring home body of student who drowned

KUALA LUMPUR: Family members of Muhammad Amirul Ashraf Abdullah, a Mara Education Foundation (YPM) sponsored student who drowned during a picnic at Arakawa River in Saitama, Japan, yesterday, are expected to leave for Japan tonight to claim the body.
YPM Malaysia-Japan Higher Education project director Mat Zailani Mat Nawawi said Muhammad Amirul Ashraf,'s mother, Junaidah Mat Ali, 43, and an uncle, accompanied by a YPM officer, would leave for Japan at 11.30 pm today.
The Malaysian Embassy in Japan would assist the family members to claim the body, he said when contacted by Bernama.
Mat Zailani said  Muhammad Amirul Ashraf's body was scheduled to arrive in Malaysia either this Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the availability of flights.
Meanwhile, Junaidah, when contacted, said Muhammad Amirul Ashraf, 21, was her only son and the family's hope.
Muhammad Amirul Ashraf, a final year Mechanical Engineering Informatics student at Meiji University, Tokyo, was having a picnic with 10 friends when he fell while crossing the river.
"The family accepts his death. The focus now is to bring home the body for the burial," she said. — Bernama