Mucad Ibrahim, 3 Faces of the INNOCENT
They are fathers, mothers, grandparents, daughters and sons. They are refugees, immigrants and New-Zealand born. They are Kiwis. These are some of the names of those who have died or are still missing.
1.
Mucad’s brother, Abdi Ibrahim, says no one has seen him since the shooting. He was at the Al Noor mosque with his family. Abdi was able to get out of the mosque while their father pretended he was dead. “We’re most likely thinking he’s one of the people who has died at the mosque . . . at this stage everyone’s saying he’s dead,” Abdi told Stuff. “It’s been pretty tough, a lot of people are ringing me asking if you need help. It’s been hard at the moment, [we’ve] never dealt with this.” Mucad is “energetic, playful and likes to smile and laugh a lot”.
Abdullahi Dirie, 4
Abdulrahman Hashi, 60, a preacher at Dar Al Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis, told the Washington Post his 4-year-old nephew was among those killed. He got a phone call from his brother-in-law Adan Ibrahin Dirie, who was also in the hospital with gunshot wounds. Four of his children escaped unharmed, but the youngest, Abdullahi, was killed. The family had fled Somalia in the mid-1990s as refugees and resettled in New Zealand. “You cannot imagine how I feel . . . These are innocent people.”
12-year-old boy
Heba Sami, whose father was shot and injured protecting his children, told Gulf News that she lost five family friends, including a 12-year-old boy, in the attack.
2. Sayyad Milne, 14
Sayyad’s father has spoken through tears of his “brave little soldier”, who died at the Al Noor mosque. The Year 10 Cashmere High School student, a keen footballer, was there with his mother and friends. He attends every Friday. His father, John Milne said: “I’ve lost my little boy, he’s just turned 14. I’ll get it together again. I haven’t heard officially yet that he’s actually passed but I know he has because he was seen.” He said he was told Sayyad was lying on the floor in the mosque, bleeding from the lower
parts of his body. “I remember him as my baby who I nearly lost when he was born. Such a struggle he’s had throughout all his life. He’s been unfairly treated but he’s risen above that and he’s very brave. A brave little soldier. It’s so hard . . . to see him just gunned down by someone who didn’t care about anyone or anything . . . I know where he is. I know he’s at peace.” Milne said he has been carrying around a sign in Christchurch which reads “everyone love everyone”. “The community is shattered,” Milne said. “But we are the most beautiful city rising out of the dust. We will go forward. This won’t bring us down. It will make us even stronger.” Milne’s other son usually went to the mosque but was on a school trip. His twin sister was at school.
Naeem Rashid and son Talha, 21
Naeem (pictured) reportedly died at Christchurch Hospital, after he tried to wrestle the gun from the shooter at the Al Noor mosque. His son Talha was also shot and killed. Naeem was from Pakistan, where he worked at a bank before moving to Christchurch to work as a teacher. His brother-in-law Dr Khursheed Alam confirmed to ARY News that the pair had been killed.
Ansi Karippakulam Alibava, 25
Alibava, a 25-year-old woman originally from India, is among the missing.
Vora Ramiz, 28
Ramiz is among the missing.
Farhaj Ahsan, 30
Ahsan, 30, left the Christchurch home he shares with wife Insha Aziz, his 3-year-old daughter and 7-monthold son on Friday morning for prayer. “I do not know where my son is,” his father, Mohammad Sayeeduddin, told the Herald on Sunday from his home in Hyderabad, India. “Please bring me good news on my son.” Ahsan is a software engineer who did his master’s degree at the University of Auckland in 2010 before settling in Christchurch. Friends supporting Ahsan’s wife said she was not accepting he was among the dead.
Mojammel Hoq, 30
Hoq, from Bangladesh, is among the missing, a friend told the Herald on Sunday. He has been here for more than two years studying dentistry.
Syed Jahandad Ali, 34
Ali’s wife, Amna Ali, at present in Pakistan, last spoke to her husband on Friday morning while having breakfast. She had not heard from him since.
Hussain Al-Umari, 36
Al-Umari’s parents, Janna Ezat and