Cheema laid to rest after 200,000 attend funeral
May 14, 2006
GUJRANWALA: Shaheed Amir Abdul Rehman Cheema, 28, who died in a German jail while awaiting trial for trying to murder a newspaper editor for reprinting blasphemous cartoons of the Holy Prophet PBUH, was laid to rest at his native village Saroke in Tehsil Wazirabad after tens of thousands of mourners attended his funeral Saturday.
The bereaved father himself led the funeral prayers at 1.05pm. According to a report, more than 200,000 people attended the funeral prayers after which Aamer was buried at 1.50pm. Qul Khawani for the departed soul will be held at 10am today (Sunday).
The dead body arrived at Lahore airport Friday night from where it was taken to Rawali cantonment airbase in a helicopter of the Punjab chief minister at 10:40am. The father, Prof Nazir Ahmed Cheema, and other relations received the body. Punjab Food Minister Ch Iqbal was also present.
Prominent among those who attended the funeral were Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MNAs, MPAs, police and other government officers. Lawyers at Gujranwala and Wazirabad did not go to work in order to attend the funeral. Bazaars and factories remained shut in Wazirabad tehsil area.
Shaheed Amir had wished in his life that he should be buried at Jannat-ul-Baqi in Madina Munawwara, said his father, lamenting that the wish of his son had not been fulfilled.
According to German police, Aamer had made a will in his hand-written letter, which states as follows:
(i) Autopsy should not be performed on my body if I die in jail.
(ii) I should be buried at the Jannat-ul-Baqi graveyard in Madina Munawwara.
(iii) My funeral prayers be held in absentia;
(iv) I would never commit suicide;
(v) Friends and relations may forgive me if I have ever caused any harm or annoyance to them.
(vi) People may pray for my soul to rest in peace.
(vii) The faithful may pray for my soul at Bait-ul-Haram in Holy Makkah and at Masjid-e-Nabvi in Holy Madina.
When the dead body of Shaheed Aamer was taken to the graveyard, a stampede broke out in consequence of which several people including old men and children were injured. Many of them were hospitalized. There was shortage of water and scorching heat in the area. Several people suffered sunstroke. The doctors participating in the last rites provided them with first aid. However, the sick and injured first offered the funeral prayers before going to hospital.
Our Lahore Correspondent adds: The dead body of Amir Cheema arrived in Lahore from Frankfurt at 9:30am on Saturday through a PIA plane. Representing Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi, Punjab CMIT Minister Shujaa Khanzada received the body and handed it over to the bereaved uncles M Aslam and Asmatullah. Lahore SSP Aamir Zulfiqar and DCO M Ejaz were also present.
Talking to media-persons on the occasion, Khanzada said profound sympathies and cooperation of the Punjab government and the people were with the bereaved family. He said a special team went from Pakistan to Germany to bring the body. The post-mortem and inquiry reports would soon get public through media, he added.
He said the government had also summoned a diplomat of the German Embassy, and they were getting a report from the German government daily.
The minister said Islam calls upon us to stay peaceful and exercise restraint on such occasions.
Agencies add: Amir Cheema were facing charges of attempting to kill the editor of Die Welt for reprinting the blasphemous cartoons first published in Denmark last year.
An adviser to the Punjab chief minister laid a wreath on the coffin when it arrived in Lahore Saturday morning before it was flown in a helicopter to the family village in Saroki.
Senior government official and close relatives were present on the tarmac when the plane carrying the body of Amir Cheema landed in Lahore from Frankfurt for burial in his hometown. Hundreds of people gathered outside the airport but police prevented them from entering the airport premises, witnesses said. “We adopted strict security measures and no incident took place,” said police officer Ahmed.
Uncle Asmat ullah said the government had made all arrangements for transportation of the body to the victim’s native village. Hundreds of thousands of mourners had congregated in Saroki and the coffin’s arrival was greeted with chants of “Get Amir’s Killers” and “Musharraf Go”, witnesses said.
Members of the religious opposition parties were prominent among the crowd, and thousands of religious students, as well as lawyers and doctors, flocked to Saroki for the funeral.
Supporters of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an organisation banned by the US earlier this month for its links with terrorism, tried to stop journalists from taking photographs.
Farid Piracha, a lawmaker from Jamaat-i-Islami party who first raised the issue in the National Assembly over a week ago, was at the funeral and maintained Cheema had been killed. “The killing of Cheema was a barbaric act. He was killed by torture,” said Piracha.
Another MMA’s lawmaker, Liaquat Baloch wanted an independent investigation and said any German officials found culpable should be tried under Pakistani law.
The religious parties organised small but fiery protests in the capital and several cities in Punjab province on Friday. The demonstrations demanded the expulsion of the German ambassador and attacks on German interests, together with calls for jihad and the overthrow of Musharraf’s government.
German prosecutors said Wednesday that a post-mortem proved that he committed suicide with a noose fashioned from his own clothes in his cell. The post-mortem examination took place in the presence of two senior Pakistani officials, one from the police and one from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), they said.
Cheema had been charged by German prosecutors after entering the Berlin offices of Die Welt newspaper on March 20 armed with a knife. Authorities said he wanted to kill the newspaper’s editor.
The bereaved father himself led the funeral prayers at 1.05pm. According to a report, more than 200,000 people attended the funeral prayers after which Aamer was buried at 1.50pm. Qul Khawani for the departed soul will be held at 10am today (Sunday).
The dead body arrived at Lahore airport Friday night from where it was taken to Rawali cantonment airbase in a helicopter of the Punjab chief minister at 10:40am. The father, Prof Nazir Ahmed Cheema, and other relations received the body. Punjab Food Minister Ch Iqbal was also present.
Prominent among those who attended the funeral were Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MNAs, MPAs, police and other government officers. Lawyers at Gujranwala and Wazirabad did not go to work in order to attend the funeral. Bazaars and factories remained shut in Wazirabad tehsil area.
Shaheed Amir had wished in his life that he should be buried at Jannat-ul-Baqi in Madina Munawwara, said his father, lamenting that the wish of his son had not been fulfilled.
According to German police, Aamer had made a will in his hand-written letter, which states as follows:
(i) Autopsy should not be performed on my body if I die in jail.
(ii) I should be buried at the Jannat-ul-Baqi graveyard in Madina Munawwara.
(iii) My funeral prayers be held in absentia;
(iv) I would never commit suicide;
(v) Friends and relations may forgive me if I have ever caused any harm or annoyance to them.
(vi) People may pray for my soul to rest in peace.
(vii) The faithful may pray for my soul at Bait-ul-Haram in Holy Makkah and at Masjid-e-Nabvi in Holy Madina.
When the dead body of Shaheed Aamer was taken to the graveyard, a stampede broke out in consequence of which several people including old men and children were injured. Many of them were hospitalized. There was shortage of water and scorching heat in the area. Several people suffered sunstroke. The doctors participating in the last rites provided them with first aid. However, the sick and injured first offered the funeral prayers before going to hospital.
Our Lahore Correspondent adds: The dead body of Amir Cheema arrived in Lahore from Frankfurt at 9:30am on Saturday through a PIA plane. Representing Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi, Punjab CMIT Minister Shujaa Khanzada received the body and handed it over to the bereaved uncles M Aslam and Asmatullah. Lahore SSP Aamir Zulfiqar and DCO M Ejaz were also present.
Talking to media-persons on the occasion, Khanzada said profound sympathies and cooperation of the Punjab government and the people were with the bereaved family. He said a special team went from Pakistan to Germany to bring the body. The post-mortem and inquiry reports would soon get public through media, he added.
He said the government had also summoned a diplomat of the German Embassy, and they were getting a report from the German government daily.
The minister said Islam calls upon us to stay peaceful and exercise restraint on such occasions.
Agencies add: Amir Cheema were facing charges of attempting to kill the editor of Die Welt for reprinting the blasphemous cartoons first published in Denmark last year.
An adviser to the Punjab chief minister laid a wreath on the coffin when it arrived in Lahore Saturday morning before it was flown in a helicopter to the family village in Saroki.
Senior government official and close relatives were present on the tarmac when the plane carrying the body of Amir Cheema landed in Lahore from Frankfurt for burial in his hometown. Hundreds of people gathered outside the airport but police prevented them from entering the airport premises, witnesses said. “We adopted strict security measures and no incident took place,” said police officer Ahmed.
Uncle Asmat ullah said the government had made all arrangements for transportation of the body to the victim’s native village. Hundreds of thousands of mourners had congregated in Saroki and the coffin’s arrival was greeted with chants of “Get Amir’s Killers” and “Musharraf Go”, witnesses said.
Members of the religious opposition parties were prominent among the crowd, and thousands of religious students, as well as lawyers and doctors, flocked to Saroki for the funeral.
Supporters of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an organisation banned by the US earlier this month for its links with terrorism, tried to stop journalists from taking photographs.
Farid Piracha, a lawmaker from Jamaat-i-Islami party who first raised the issue in the National Assembly over a week ago, was at the funeral and maintained Cheema had been killed. “The killing of Cheema was a barbaric act. He was killed by torture,” said Piracha.
Another MMA’s lawmaker, Liaquat Baloch wanted an independent investigation and said any German officials found culpable should be tried under Pakistani law.
The religious parties organised small but fiery protests in the capital and several cities in Punjab province on Friday. The demonstrations demanded the expulsion of the German ambassador and attacks on German interests, together with calls for jihad and the overthrow of Musharraf’s government.
German prosecutors said Wednesday that a post-mortem proved that he committed suicide with a noose fashioned from his own clothes in his cell. The post-mortem examination took place in the presence of two senior Pakistani officials, one from the police and one from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), they said.
Cheema had been charged by German prosecutors after entering the Berlin offices of Die Welt newspaper on March 20 armed with a knife. Authorities said he wanted to kill the newspaper’s editor.
