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| Sunday, 24 October 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Riyadh tragedy : Home bound, then driven to death by Susil Ratnaweera, Our Panadura North Group Corr. Heaps of hopes and yearnings did she bundle up to fly to her nest as she counted the days. It was certainly a cruel fate which had her eyes closed forever before she reached her nestlings. This cruel fate has flung the lives of her husband, daughter and son in to such a deep agony that her mother laments, her hands to the heavens above wailing that no such fate should befall even a foe. This tragedy fell heavily upon a mother of two who left for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia three years ago to find greener pastures for her family who were not well off living in their home located in No. 10/1, Susantha Mawatha, Panadura. Twenty-nine-year-old Thilakshi Priyadharshani had not the slightest knowledge that fate would crush her simple hopes as she went to work as cleaner in a hospital in Riyadh. The fateful day dawned. After a completion of three years at the hospital Thilakshi along with forty other travelled in a bus to their destination, the King Khalid International Air Port in Riyadh only to meet her doom along with four other Sri Lankan women. The bus suddenly crashed upon an oil tanker and the coach collided bringing death to Thilakshi and three more Sri Lankan women. The dead included Thilakshi Priyadharshani, Anula Neelakanthi, Anushika Dilrukshi and Preethika. Nishani Rangika, the youngest sister of the deceased Thilakshi has been working as a cleaner in the 'Najran Hospital'. She too has suffered eye injury and undergone surgery. It is reported that the journey to King Khalid International Air Port takes about 12 hours and that the passengers had travelled only for 7 hours. As I visited their humble home, it was clear from the faces of the ten-year-old daughter Rameshika Hashani, and five-year-old Rasinda Hashan that the sparkling innocence of their eager eyes which awaited their mothers arrival with goodies have been cruelly replaced with tears which flow continuously. Y. Princy Peiris (51) the waiting mother of Thilakshi lamented their plight in this way to me. "My poor child, Thilakshi had eagerly hoped to get a plot of land to call her own and to live with her husband and two children peacefully. I have three daughters and two of them are married. The deceased Thilakshi is my second daughter. She studied up to her G. C. E. Advanced Level and did well at the Methodist High School Moratumulla. My youngest daughter Nishani Rangika and my sister's daughter Dharshanee Priyanka accompanied my Thilakshi when they left Sri Lanka for Riyadh on the 4th of November 2001. It is said that Dharshanee is not injured, she said heaving a sigh of relief for the small favour granted. "On the 10th of October 2004 my daughter Thilakshi phoned me. She said that she had bought toys worth Rupees 15,000 for her children. That was the last thing she ever said to me", she says pausing now and then trying to control her grief. Sugath Luxman Fernando (32) Thilakshi's husband is a carpenter by profession. They entered into marriage on the 5th of May 1993 and their only hope was to live happily and peacefully raising their two kids. |
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