Boston bombings suspect to be given Muslim burial

BOSTON— A mortuary familiar with Muslim services will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a gun battle with police after an intense manhunt, a funeral director said Friday.

Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, confirmed his facility will handle Tsarnaev’s arrangements, but he could not say whether he has possession of the body.

Stefan said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of their death and he is prepared for protests. He added that arrangements have yet to be worked out.

Meanwhile, two U.S. officials said the surviving suspected Boston bomber told interrogators that he and his brother initially considered setting off their bombs on July Fourth. And, in the first security change by the U.S. government directly related to the Boston bombings, customs officials were ordered to verify that every arriving foreign student has a valid visa.

On Thursday night, several protesters showed up outside a North Attleborough funeral home where Tsarnaev’s body was taken following its release by the state medical examiner.

Timothy Nay of the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home said he is no longer in possession of the body.

Authorities are now closer to being able to make public Tsarnaev’s cause of death.

The medical examiner determined Tsarnaev’s cause of death on Monday, but officials said it wouldn’t be disclosed until his remains were released and a death certificate was filed.