Charles tells family of murdered Asad: I feel for you deeply Prince shares his anguish in moving letter to relatives
PRINCE Charles sent a moving letter of support to the family of a Scottish shopkeeper murdered by an Islamic extremist. Asad Shah was stabbed to death in the street by Sunni fanatic Tanveer Ahmed, who drove hundreds of miles from his home in Bradford to kill him over what he saw as blasphemous online videos.
Mr Shah’s family, followers of the Ahmadiyya Islamic faith and who fled Pakistan 20 years ago to escape religious persecution, have since sold the shop and left Scotland.
Now as the first anniversary of the 40-year-old’s murder approaches it has emerged that the Prince of Wales was one of the thousands who supported the grieving family.
The letter, addressed ‘To all the Shah family’, was sent from the 68- year-old Prince’s desk at Clarence House in London on March 31 last year. Charles wrote: ‘It was with the greatest shock and sadness that my wife and I learnt of the horrific assault upon Asad and his subsequent death.
‘I cannot even begin to imagine the utterly heartbreaking anguish of your loss but, above all, I wanted you to know how deeply I feel for you all. I can only pray that there may be some very small comfort for you in the fact that Asad was so clearly held in the highest possible regard by the local community. I fear that this letter is hopelessly inadequate under such appallingly distressing circumstances, but please know that you are so much in our thoughts and special prayers at this time.’
The letter is signed off ‘with the greatest possible sympathy’.
Mr Shah was attacked while manning the till of the convenience store run by his family in Shawlands on the south side of Glasgow.
The frenzied knife assault spilled into the street outside where he collapsed, before Ahmed stamped repeatedly on his head.
Mr Shah’s brother Athar was a witness and was cut in the neck as he attempted to save his brother.
Earlier this week, he described the scene: ‘The murderer was holding on to my brother’s shoulder with one hand and using the other to stab him over the head.
‘I picked up the advertisement stand and started hitting him on his back and side until he fell and let go of Asad. He dropped the knife and I helped my brother up and supported him over my shoulder, and asked him to run with me for help. The murderer had managed to get up and chase us right to the bus stop and kicked me.
‘That’s where I lost Asad. When my brother was breathing his last, the murderer just walked away and sat on the pavement next to the bus stop, laughing and grinning as if he’d accomplished his job.’
Ahmed waited a short distance away from the killing for police to arrive. Sentenced to 27 years in jail, he appealed but the move was blocked.
Athar, who lived with his brother in Shawlands, said: ‘He was the friendliest person that you’d ever meet. He didn’t see colours – skin colours – he saw you for you, for what was inside. He wanted to help everyone, even the people who wanted to harm him.’
Ahmed may now face a new police probe after hate-filled religious messages were smuggled out of jail and posted online. Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh has called for a probe into possible terror offences. Police Scotland said it was ‘assessing the matter’.
‘Greatest shock and sadness’ ‘He wanted to help everyone’