KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah today performed Friday prayers at the National Mosque here and joined the tahlil session for passengers and crew members of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which was declared to have crashed.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom were among the congregation.

Also present was former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

More than 5,000 people joined the congregation for the Friday prayers and tahlil session led by National Mosque grand imam Tan Sri Syaikh Ismail Muhammad.

“For all family members of the MH370 victims, I hope they will be patient in facing the challenge because Allah will bless those who have patience,” he told reporters after the session.

Yesterday, the government declared the disappearance of MH370 as an accident, and that all the 239 passengers and crew were considered to have died.

The flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

One hundred and fifty-three of the passengers were Chinese nationals; 38 Malaysians; seven Indonesians and six Australians.

The Boeing 777 has yet to be found even though a massive search operation was mounted in the south Indian Ocean, the location where it was believed to have crashed after deviating from its route.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin performed Friday prayers and joined the tahlil session for MH370 organised by Umno at the Surau Ar-Rahman, Putra World Trade Centre here.

Also present were Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hassan Malek and Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan.

The imam of the surau, Datuk Shamsul Najmi Shamsuddin led the tahlil session and the Friday prayers earlier.

In Putrajaya, about 200 people participated in the special tahlil session for the passengers and crew members of the MH370 after the Friday prayers at the Masjid Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, here.

The tahlil session was led by Ustaz Ahamd Rijal Ghazali, the Imam of Masjid Tuanku Mizan. — Bernama