Youngest mosque victim farewelled at mass burial

Mourners carry one of 26 people to be buried at Memorial Park Cemetery today. Photo: AP
Mourners carry one of 26 people to be buried at Memorial Park Cemetery today. Photo: AP
The youngest victim of the Christchurch terror attack has been buried after a mass funeral a week on from the tragedy.

Three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim was killed at Al Noor Mosque in central Christchurch on March 15 after becoming separated from his father and brother.

Mucaad Ibrahim. Photo: supplied via NZ Herald
Mucaad Ibrahim. Photo: supplied via NZ Herald
Mucaad was lost in the melee when the firing started as his brother Abdi fled for his life and his father pretended to be dead after being shot.

The family searched in vain for the young boy at Christchurch Hospital and later posted a photograph of him smiling with Abdi, along with the caption: "Verily we belong to God and to Him we shall return. Will miss you dearly brother".

Mucaad and 25 other people killed in the mosque shootings were buried at Memorial Park Cemetery today. More than 5000 mourners gathered for the funeral which began at 4pm.

A total of 50 people were killed in attacks at the Al Noor Mosque and one in Linwood. 

Many of those attending today's mass funeral came straight from Hagley Park where up to 15,000 people watched Friday prayers attended by  Al Noor mosque Imam Gamal Fouda and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. 

Bodies were carried from the makeshift mosque past mourners and put straight into graves. Small groups of loved ones stood at each grave.

Once the bodies were lowered into the ground, the open caskets they were carried in were taken away by funeral directors.

Muslim tradition requires bodies to be buried as soon as possible after death. That usually means burial within 24 hours, but that was not possible in this case because police had to formally identify the 50 victims.

Friday's funerals are the last in Christchurch relating to the attack. Other victims were being buried in other cities or in their home countries.

The full list of people buried this afternoon:

Kamel Mohd Kamal Kamel DARWISH
Ghulam HUSSAIN
Karam BIBI
Muhammad Zeshan RAZA
Ashraf El-Moursy RAGHEB
Mucaad IBRAHIM
Husna AHMED
Ramiz Arif Bhai VORA
Arif Mohamedali VOHRA
Amjad HAMID
Muse AWALE
Muhammad SAMAD
Mohammad Ata ELAYYAN
Osama Adnan ABUKWAIK
Mounir SOLIMAN
Muhammad Suhail SHAHID
Abdelfattah QASEM
Ali Mah'd Abdullah ELMADANI
Abdukadir ELMI
Ahmed Gamal Eldin Mohamed ABDEL GHANY
Talha NAEEM
Naeem RASHID
Hussein AL-UMARI
Mohammed Imran KHAN
Mohamed Sheikh Abdi ELMI
Haroon MAHMOOD

 

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