KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia lost 43 citizens when a missile blasted Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from the sky over eastern Ukraine, and the country’s anger is rising toward Russia following reports that victims’ bodies lie uncollected or have been mishandled — especially troubling news to Malaysia’s many Muslims, for whom prompt, solemn burial of the dead is sacred.

Yet Malaysia’s government, unlike the Obama administration, has proved reluctant to assign blame for the incident.

Syuhada Daud, a cousin of a Malaysian couple who died with their four children on the flight, said she could not bring herself to watch television reports of debris and bodies, poorly guarded, even looted, on farmland in an area of Ukraine dominated by pro-Russian separatists.

“I most want for the bodies to be safe and brought back here,” she said in a brief interview on Sunday in a hotel near Kuala Lumpur where families of the victims have been cared for by Malaysia Airlines. “It’s very important for Muslims to be buried as early as possible, so this is the hardest thing for families,” she said.