Survivor intent on return to scene
Mohammad Shamim Siddiqui is determined to attend Friday prayers at Masjid Al Noor even if he has to leave his hospital bed to do so.
Siddiqui, 59, is recovering in Christchurch Hospital after being shot in the arm during the terror attack at the mosque in Deans Ave last Friday.
He has since undergone two surgeries after an artery was ruptured and is unlikely to be able to move his thumb and index finger due to nerve damage.
His daughter, Alisha Siddique, said she hoped her father would be discharged from hospital today before prayers at the mosque.
‘‘If he doesn’t get let out, we are worried he will sneak out and go.’’
Several businesses have been working to clean and repair the mosque so the Muslim community can return to pray there this afternoon.
Siddiqui, a taxi driver who moved to Christchurch from India 20 years ago, was one of 48 people injured during the mosque massacres last Friday. Fifty people died, including 42 people at Masjid Al Noor.
The family live just 150 steps from the mosque and Siddiqui’s wife, Rehana Parween, said she would normally have been there too but stayed home last Friday because she was feeling unwell.
Siddiqui punched a hole in a window and managed to escape to the car park at the back of the mosque, where he rang his wife to tell her to keep their son, Shayan, 16, at home.
Shayan was walking through the mosque gate when he realised someone was shooting and ran away.
Meanwhile, Siddiqui was still on the phone to his wife.
‘‘He was telling me he loved me and that he is safe and then he was shot. His phone went down. I am shouting, ‘Where are you?’ He was still on the phone. He was not speaking. He was moaning.’’
Parween stayed on the phone with Siddiqui until long after he was in hospital.
‘‘I can not express my feelings. I think I am lucky,’’ Parween said.
She lost a lot of good friends in the shooting. ‘‘I know them very well. It’s a very small community.’’
Alisha said because her mother was on the phone to her dad the whole time, they knew he was alive, even though they were not allowed to see him in hospital straight away.
She said her family did not blame anyone for the shooting. They were overwhelmed at the love and support they had received.