THE MH17 tragedy had inevitably left an ineffaceable impact on not just the families of the victims, but the nation still mourns the passing of the innocent souls on board the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines jetliner on that fateful July 17 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

For Malaysian officials who were given the responsibilities to facilitate identification of 43 Malaysian victims, the Disaster Victim Identification Team (DVI), forensics and investigation -- this arduous phase was deemed utmost challenging.

Understandably, the challenge faced by a 10-man team -- made up of officials from the Malaysian Islamic Religious Department (JAKIM) -- was not a walk in the park.

The team, led by Putra mosque grand imam and JAKIM head official to Amsterdam, Abdul Manaf Mat, was given the responsibility in ensuring the smooth journey of the funeral rites for Muslims crew and passengers on board MH17 before the remains were flown back to Malaysia.

“The mental image we had was the gathering of the bodies at the MH17 crash site. The images were sketchy and unexplainable but we knew that it had to be done as the nation was counting on us, we feel proud and the fully responsible in shouldering the task,” said Manaf.

Manaf, along with eight officers from the Malaysian Islamic Department and the Armed Forces Religious Corp were responsible with one Herculean task: to conduct the cleansing and preparation of Muslims’ bodies.

In Ukraine and the Netherlands, Manaf was tasked to oversee the funeral preparations for the victims and responsibly led the solat jenazah for a total of six victims.

Taking into consideration that Islam is a minority religion in Ukraine, sufficient medical supplies and apparatus had to be brought along from three main mosques including the National mosque, Putra mosque and Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin mosque.

“When we were there, we had to locate the remains followed by securing an appropriate place to carry out the final rite for the victims,” he added.

Meanwhile, JAKIM social service assistant director Mohd Zulrushdi Salleh said the discussion on the funeral rites performed was held in Amsterdam.

“We considered the condition of the bodies we were going to receive and how we would conduct the cleansing procedures of the remains,” said Zulrushdi.

Manaf and Zulrushdi were the guests for an interview in tribute of MH17 with magazine programme, Analisis AWANI held at its office here Friday.

To ensure preparations for the funeral rites would run smoothly sans hiccups, said Zulrushdi, a series of discussions took place.

“Not only that, the team had to also performed several simulation exercises based on our assumptions of the victims,” he said.

To date, a total of 35 victims had been brought back to Malaysia including one passengers with dual nationality (Loh Yan Hwa) and two Dutch nationals, Poel Goes and Fan Shun Po.

Flight MH17 was carrying 298 passengers including 15 crew members en route Kuala Lumpur before it was shot down in the Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.