Ag News Desk
CHRISTCHURCH: The special meeting of the New Zealand parliament on Tuesday began with the recitation of the Holy Quran to express solidarity with those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on Christchurch mosques, Radio Pakistan reported.
In the special session, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed to never to utter the name of the twin-mosque gunman as she opened a sombre session of parliament with an evocative “As-salaam alaikum” message of peace to Muslims.
“He will face the full force of the law in New Zealand,” Ardern pledged to grieving Kiwis, while promising that she would deprive the man, an avowed white supremacist who slaughtered 50 people in Christchurch, of the publicity he craved. “He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety,” she told assembled lawmakers of the 28-year-old Australian accused of the slaughter. “That is why you will never hear me mention his name. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless.”
“I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them.”Dressed in black, the 38-year-old leader opened her remarks in parliament with a symbolic gesture, said: “As-salaam alaikum”. She closed her address by noting that “on Friday, it will be a week since the attack, members of the Muslim community will gather for worship on that day. Let us acknowledge their grief as they do.”
Outlining some of the stories of bravery in the wake of the shootings, the prime minister praised the two police officers who apprehended the suspect, ramming his car while shots were still being fired. She also praised Pakistani victim Naeem Rashid and Afghan Abdul Aziz.
“Naeem Rashid died after rushing at the terrorist and trying to wrestle the gun from him. Abdul Aziz, originally from Afghanistan, confronted the armed terrorist after grabbing the nearest thing he could find, a simple Eftpos (card) machine. There will be countless stories of bravery, some of which we may never know. But to each of you, we thank you.” “Wa alaikum salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,” she said — “May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you too.”
Her comments came as dozens of relatives of the deceased began arriving from around the world ahead of expected funerals which have already been delayed far beyond the 24 hours after death usually observed under Islamic custom.
Peter Elms of New Zealand’s immigration department said 65 visas had been granted for overseas family members so far. The slow process of identification and forensic documentation has so far made burials impossible, augmenting families’ grief.
Javed Dadabhai, who travelled from Auckland to help bury his cousin, said families and volunteers were told: “It is going to be a very slow process, a very thorough process.” “Some families have been invited to have a look at their family members... the ones that are easiest to recognise, but we are talking about three or four.” “The majority of people still have not had the opportunity to see their family members,” he told AFP.
Mohamed Safi, 23, whose father Matiullah Safi died in Al Noor mosque, pleaded for officials to let him identify his father get a date for his burial. “There’s nothing they are offering,” Safi, an Afghan refugee, said outside a family support centre.
“They are just saying they are doing their procedures, they are doing their process. But what process? Why do I not know what you are going through to identify the body... Why am I not contacted as an immediate family member?”—
