Ras Al Khaimah: Friends and teachers on Thursday bade farewell to an Indian youngster whose body was retrieved from Oman on Wednesday, six days after he was swept away in flash floods.
A condolence and prayer meeting for Albert Joy, 18, was held at the auditorium of Birla Institute of Technology in Ras Al Khaimah.
Dr P.K. Upadhyay, academic coordinator, told Gulf News that all faculty members and over 400 students attended the meeting held in memory of Joy.
“Our entire campus has been shattered. It was a very emotional moment for the teachers and students as we held a candlelight vigil and observed silent prayer for the peace of the departed soul.”
Friends wrote emotional parting messages for Joy, who was a student of first semester of the Bachelor of Engineering programme that began in September.
Dr Upadhyay remembered him as a very good student. “I had taken class for him even that day. He and the other boys, who went with him to the wadi, had come to the college and attended all classes and went back home (before they went to the wadi).”
He said the other students who were rescued from the flash foods in Wadi Shis have been particularly devastated.
“Our hearts go out to his family. We teachers and students have been visiting them after the tragedy. We have been sending students in batches in college buses to his house,” said Dr Upadhyay.
The body of Joy was retrieved from a dam in Oman on Wednesday after a massive combing operation involving police teams from the UAE and Oman.
A relative thanked the police teams and the colleagues of Joy’s father who works with Julphar Pharmaceuticals.
“They [colleagues] have been there with the family from day one, searching for him and supporting his distraught parents. We want to thank Lieutenant-Colonel Waleed Al Yamahi, director of Khor Fakkan Police and the kind shaikhs in Wadi Shis area who supported us to the core.”
He said the family would hold the funeral of Joy at their hometown in the South Indian state of Kerala, where Joy’s grandparents live, after the legal formalities for repatriating the body.
