Security high at funerals for victims
Hundred gathered at Christchurch’s Memorial Park Cemetery for the funerals of 14-year-old Sayyad Ahmad Milne and Tariq Rashid Omar, two of last week’s mosque attack victims.
The memorials were conducted 2.5 kilometres away from Linwood Masjid, where a gunman targeted worshippers last Friday.
Sayyad was a pupil at Cashmere High School, while 24-year-old Omar was a student there from 2008 to 2012.
The pair were laid to rest yesterday at the same east Christchurch cemetery where the majority of those killed will be buried.
The two funeral processions arrived just after 10am and the victims’ bodies were carried by family members to a large marquee, where prayers were conducted in Arabic.
The coffins were then taken to their respective burial plots.
Security was high to ensure the services were not interrupted. Armed police guarded the cemetery gates, while volunteers helped organise the large crowd of well-wishers.
Sayyad was at the Masjid Al Noor, on Deans Ave, for last Friday’s prayers when the attack started.
He grew up in Corsair Bay, near Lyttelton, where he attended primary school and was described as a goodnatured, kind teenager.
Sayyad’s mother, Noraini, was also in the mosque but managed to escape. The teenager has two other siblings, 15-year-old twins Shuayb and Cahaya.
His sister, Cahaya, said in an earlier interview that her brother had dreams of becoming an international footballer. He played goalie.
He was meant to play in a futsal tournament in Wellington in two weeks, which he was ‘‘really looking forward to’’.
‘‘He was a loving and kind brother and will be greatly missed.’’
Omar is remembered for his kind and humble nature. He is said to have got along with everybody, excelled at sport and in class.
The first funerals for the 50 victims of the Christchurch massacre were held on Wednesday after an agonising wait for the city’s Muslim community.
Laid to rest were Khaled Mustafa and his 15-year-old son Hamza, a student of Cashmere High School, while younger son Zaid looked on from a wheelchair, also a victim of the shooting.
The family had arrived in New Zealand only a few months ago, escaping conflict in Syria. The father and son were victims of the massacre at the Al Noor Mosque on Friday.
Just after 12.20pm on Wednesday, a funeral procession arrived at the Memorial Park Cemetery, led by a police car.
Shrouded and lying in open caskets, the two were carried by mourners into a marquee set up in the Islamic section of the cemetery. Less than 20 minutes later, their caskets were lowered into the ground as the family watched.
In a sign of how tense the southern city remains after the massacre, large parts of the cemetery section have been fenced off for days.
Jamil el-Biza, from the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association in Sydney, said it was horrific to attend a funeral where the first words spoken were emergency evacuation procedures.
He said moments before the funeral service began that he heard the victim’s younger brother, 13-year-old Zaid say to his father and brother, ‘‘I don’t want to be here alone’’.
El-Biza said the funeral was a demonstration of humanity and this was why so many people had travelled thousands of kilometres to be present.
He also said Australian politicians and media figures needed to learn a lesson from the atrocity in Christchurch.
It is expected that funerals will be held at 11am and 3pm over coming days as bodies are released by the coroner.
A mass burial is expected to take place at some stage.
Inside the new fencing, the 50 graves have been prepared in accordance with Muslim tradition, though it is expected that some victims will be repatriated to their home countries.