Saudi bomber’s father refuses condolences

Al Sarwani did not contact wife even when she gave birth to their second baby

The father of a Saudi man who blew himself up last Saturday to avoid being arrested by the police has refused to accept condolences from anyone.

“The door of my house is completely shut to anything related to him and I am not at all thinking about accepting condolences or even getting an official death certificate from the authorities,” Ghazi Al Sarwani said. Khalid Al Sarwani and another man committed suicide in Jeddah after they realised they were surrounded by the police and that there was no escape.

“The family has distanced itself from Khalid and our father is determined that there will be no condolences on his death,” Sultan Al Sarwani, Khalid’s brother, said, quoted by Saudi daily Al Watan on Thursday. “Common sense and religious responsibility clearly indicate that there be can no condolences or sympathies with him.”

Sultan added that his brother had been a bright student until he graduated from high school.

“He was once arrested eight years ago because of his deviant views, and after he came out of prison, our father prompted him to get married. After the marriage, he lived with us and resumed his normal life with a greater sense of discipline,” Sultan said.

Under the radar

“However, he later moved out to an independent home and we started hearing less and less from him until we were shocked by the news on Saturday. We had not known anything about him for nine months, and even when his wife delivered their second baby, he did not contact her.”

Most Saudi fathers, when their sons with terrorism links were killed by the police, have refused to accept condolences on their deaths, and families have distanced themselves from them. Saudi police on Saturday said that they conducted two security operations targeting two hideouts in Jeddah.

In the first operation targeting a rest house in the Harazat area, the two suspects blew themselves up, while in the second in Al Naseem neighbourhood, a Saudi man, Hosam Al Jahni, and a Pakistani woman, Fatima Ramazan, reportedly his wife, were arrested.

In the first operation, the police found bomb-making equipment and explosive devices while a weapon was seized in the second.