Wounded teen grappling with huge heartache

HIS legs and arms shot through with bullets, Zaid Mustafa, 13, came in a wheelchair to farewell his father Khaled, 44, and brother Hamza, 15, who both died in a gunman’s rampage in Christchurch on Friday.

“He tried to stand up to show his respects to his father and brother but he was unable,” said Jamil el-Biza, who was at the grave site.

“But he said he wanted to stay and shake every person’s hand. He was not only upset, he was heartbroken.”

The tragedy of this Syrian family is especially brutal given they had just been accepted into New Zealand as refugees in late 2018.

Both boys had attended Cashmere High School and were still in the process of adjusting, but felt their lives had changed for the better after six years in a refugee camp in Jordan after fleeing the bloody terror of Bashar Assad’s dictatorship.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited the school yesterday where she told students it was “OK to grieve” and called on them to help guard New Zealand against extremism and stamp out racism.

Hundreds of people attended the funerals of the father and son, the first of the 50 to be laid to rest in Christchurch.

The bodies of the two, hav- al- ing been through a cleansing ritual, were taken to the Memorial Park Cemetery where more than 40 people are expected to be buried in coming days — with others expected to be repatriated to their country of birth.

Not a word was said of accused mass-murderer Brenton Tarrant, reportedly to deny him the notoriety he craves.

The ceremony was very short: in less than 10 minutes, the Salat al-Janazah — a