bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Associated Press

An attack on a New Zealand mosque took the lives of 50 worshippers Friday and left dozens more wounded when a white supremacist opened fire and live-streamed the shootings.
Here are the stories of some of those killed and wounded.




THE DEAD
Husna Ahmed
Farid Ahmed refuses to turn his back on his adopted home, despite losing his 45-year-old wife, Husna Ahmed, in the Al Noor mosque attack. They had split up to go to the bathroom when it happened.
The gunman live-streamed the massacre on the internet, and Ahmed later saw a video of his wife being shot. A police officer confirmed she died.
Despite the horror, Ahmed – originally from Bangladesh – still considers New Zealand a great country.
“I believe that some people, purposely, they are trying to break down the harmony we have in New Zealand with the diversity,” he said. “But they are not going to win. They are not going to win. We will be harmonious.”

Syed Areeb Ahmed, 26
Ahmed had recently moved from his house in Karachi, Pakistan, for a job in New Zealand to help support his family back home. On Saturday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry informed his family that Ahmed was among those killed during the mosque attack.
One of his uncles, Muhammad Muzaffar Khan, described him as deeply religious, praying five times a day. But education was always his first priority, Khan said.
Ahmed was an only son who had immigrated to New Zealand for work, his uncle said.
“Education had always remained his first priority,” Khan said. “He had gone to New Zealand recently where he got his job. He had only started his career, but the enemies took his life”
Family members, relatives, and friends have gathered at Ahmed’s house to express their condolences. His body is expected to arrive there in the coming days.
Farhak Ahsan, 30
The software engineer moved to New Zealand six years ago from the city of Hyderabad in India, where his parents still live, according to the Mumbai Mirror.
“We received the disturbing news,” Ahsan’s father, Mohammed Sayeeduddin told the newspaper Saturday. Friends and family had been trying to reach Ahsan since the attack.
Ahsan was married and had a 3-year-old daughter and infant son.
Abdullahi Dirie, 4
Four of Adan Ibrahin Dirie’s five children managed to escape Friday’s attacks, but the youngest, Abdullahi, was killed, his uncle, Abdulrahman Hashi, 60, a preacher at Dar Al Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis, told The New Zealand Herald.
Dirie also suffered gunshot wounds and was hospitalised. The family fled Somalia in the mid-1990s as refugees and resettled in New Zealand.
“You cannot imagine how I feel,” Hashi said.
He added: “He was the youngest in the family. This is a problem of extremism. Some people think the Muslims in their country are part of that, but these are innocent people.”
Ali Elmadani
Elmadani and his wife immigrated from the United Arab Emirates in 1998. The retired Christchurch engineer always told his children to be strong and patient, so that’s what they are trying to do after the tragedy, his daughter, Maha Elmadani, told Stuff.
“He considered New Zealand home and never thought something like this would happen here,” she said.
She said her mother “is staying as strong as possible. My younger brother isn’t doing too well with the news.”
Lilik Abdul Hamid
The long-time aircraft maintenance engineer at Air New Zealand was killed in the Al Noor mosque when he was killed, his employer said in a statement.
“Lilik has been a valued part of our engineering team in Christchurch for 16 years, but he first got to know the team even earlier when he worked with our aircraft engineers in a previous role overseas,” Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon said.
“The friendships he made at that time led him to apply for a role in Air New Zealand and make the move to Christchurch. His loss will be deeply felt by the team.
Hamid was married and had two children, Luxon said.
“Lilik, his wife Nina and their children Zhania and Gerin are well known and loved by our close-knit team of engineers and their families, who are now doing all they can to support the family alongside our leadership team and the airline’s special help team,” he said.

Mucaad Ibrahim, 3
Mucaad Ibrahim was lost in the melee when the firing started at the Al Noor mosque as his older brother Abdi fled for his life and his father pretended to be dead after being shot.
The New Zealand Herald reported that the family searched in vain for the toddler at Christchurch hospital and later posted a photograph of Mucaad, smiling with Abdi with the caption: “Verily we belong to God and to Him we shall return. Will miss you dearly brother”.
Abdi described his little brother as “energetic, playful and liked to smile and laugh a lot,” confessing he felt nothing but “hatred” for his killer.
Mohammad Imran Khan
A handwritten cardboard sign outside Mohammad Imran Khan’s restaurant, the Indian Grill in Christchurch, on Sunday said simply CLOSED. A handful of pink flowers laid nearby.
The owner of the convenience store next door, JB’s Discounter, Jaiman Patel, 31, said he helped the staff with the keys after the terrorist attack that claimed Khan’s life.
“He’s a really good guy. I tried to help him out with the setup and everything,” Patel said. “We also put the key out for them when the terrorists come, and sorted it out for him.”
Khan had a son who was 10 or 11, Patel said.
The two were business neighbours who helped each other out when needed, he said.
“We are helping each other. It’s so sad.”
Sayyad Milne, 14
Milne was described as a good-natured, kind teenager. The high school student was at the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers when the attack started, his half-sister, Brydie Henry, told the Stuff media outlet.
Sayyad was last seen “lying on the floor of the bloody mosque, bleeding from his lower body,” she said her father told her.
Sayyad’s mother, Noraini, was also in the mosque and managed to escape, Henry said. The teenager has two other siblings, 15-year-old twins Shuayb and Cahaya.
“They’re all at home just waiting. They’re just waiting and they don’t know what to do,” Henry told the news site.
Junaid Mortara, 35
Javed Dadabhai is mourning for his gentle cousin, 35-year-old Junaid Mortara, believed to have died in the first mosque attack.
His cousin was the breadwinner of the family, supporting his mother, his wife and their three children, ages 1 to 5. Mortara had inherited his father’s convenience store, which was covered in flowers on Saturday.
Mortara was an avid cricket fan, and would always send a sparring text with relatives over cricket matches when Canterbury faced Auckland.

Haji Daoud Nabi, 71
Nabi moved his family to New Zealand in 1979 to escape the Soviet-Afghan war. Days before the shootings, his son, Omar, recalled his father speaking about the importance of unity.
“My father said how important it is to spread love and unity among each other and protect every member of the society we live in,” Omar told Al-Jazeera.
Omar told the news network his father ran an Afghan Association and helped refugees settle in to a new country.
“He used to make them feel at home,” Omar said.
Husne Ara Parvin, 42
Parvin died being struck by bullets while trying to shield her wheelchair-bound husband, Farid Uddin Ahmed, her nephew Mahfuz Chowdhury told The Daily Star, a Bangladesh newspaper.
Chowdhury said Uddin had been ill for years and Parvin took him to the mosque every other Friday. She had taken him to the mosque for men while she went to the one for women.
Mahfuz said relatives in New Zealand told him when the shootings began, Parvin rushed to her husband’s mosque to protect him. He survived.
The Bangladeshi couple had moved to New Zealand sometime after 1994, Chowdhury said.
Naeem Rashid, 50, and Talha Rashid, 21
As the shootings unfolded, Naeem Rashid is seen on video trying to tackle the gunman, according to Rashid’s brother, Khurshid Alam.
“He was a brave person, and I’ve heard from a few people there, there were few witnesses. they’ve said he saved a few lives there by trying to stop that guy,” Alam told the BBC.
Rashid’s son, Talha Rashid, is also among the dead. Pakistan’s Ministry of Public Affairs confirmed their deaths in a tweet.
The elder Rashid was a teacher in Christchurch and was from Abbottabad, Pakistan. His son was 11 when his family moved to New Zealand. He had a new job and planned to get married.
Hussein al-Umari
An Iraqi who born in Abu Dhabi was killed in the attack on two mosques in New Zealand.
His mother wrote on social media that Hussein al-Umari was killed.
His family and friends had been seeking information on al-Umari, in his mid-30s, who had failed to return after going to Friday prayers at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch.
His mother, an Iraqi calligraphy artist named Janna Ezzat, wrote on Facebook that her son had become a martyr.
Ezzat wrote: “Our son was full of life and always put the needs of others in front of his own.”
INDIAN CITIZENS KILLED
India’s ambassador to New Zealand issued the following names of Indian citizens who were killed in the mosque attacks:
– Maheboob Khokhar
-Ramiz Vora
– Asif Vora
– Ansi Alibava
– Ozair Kadir

MORE PAKISTANI VICTIMS IDENTIFIED
Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed nine Pakistanis were killed in the Christchurch mosque attacks. They have been identified as follows:
Zeeshan Raza, his father Ghulam Hussain and mother Karam Bibi, Sohail Shahid, Syed Jahandad Ali, Syed Areeb Ahmed, Mahboob Haroon, Naeem Rashid and his son Talha Naeem.
Naeem Rashid and his son Talha Naeem, 22, died after trying to disarm the gunman.
Rashid’s brother, who lives in Pakistan’s garrison city of Abbottabad, Dr Mohammad Khursheed, received an emotional call from his sister-in-law telling him of his brother’s death. He died along with his son Talha Naeem.
Khursheed said his brother had already bought his plane ticket to Pakistan for a May family reunion. “He was very brave. He snatched the gun and I think he saved many lives,” Khursheed said.
Rashid had migrated to New Zealand in 2009. He was teacher here and same profession he had adopted there and so his wife.
Rashid’s 75-year-old mother Bedar Bibi was devastated and wanted to fly to New Zealand for a last look at her son and grandson.
“I want the New Zealand government should take me there so I can have one last look of my beloved son and my grandson Talha,” she said.
The foreign ministry provided more information about other citizens who died in the attacks:
– Sohail Shahid, son of Muhammad Shabbir, age 40.
– Syed Jahanand Ali, age 34.
– Mahboob Haroon, son of Shahid Mehboob, resident of Rawalpindi, age 40.
THE WOUNDED
Sabri Daraghmeh
A Jordanian man says his 4-year-old niece is fighting for her life after being wounded. Sabri Daraghmeh said by phone from Jordan on Saturday that the girl, Elin, remains “in the danger phase” and that her father, Waseem - Sabri’s brother - is in stable condition.
Daraghmeh says the 33-year-old Waseem moved to New Zealand five years ago and that he described it as the “safest place one could ever live in.”
The Daraghmehs are of Palestinian origin, but have Jordanian citizenship, like several others listed as Jordanian nationals among those killed and wounded in the mosque attacks.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Saturday that at least four Palestinians were among those killed, but acknowledged they could have been counted by Jordan or other countries.
Shihadeh Nasasrah
Shihadeh Nasasrah, 63, who was wounded in the New Zealand mosque shooting, said he spent terrifying minutes lying underneath two dying men as the gunman kept firing.
The assailant “would go out and bring more ammunition and resume shooting,” said Nasasrah, speaking by phone from a Christchurch hospital where he was recovering from two shots to the leg. “Every time he stopped, I thought he was gone. But he returned over and over again. I was afraid to leave because I didn’t know the safest way out. I died several times, not one time.”
Nasasrah had attended Friday prayers at the Al Noor Mosque with his friend, Abdel Fattah Qasim, 60, who was killed in the shooting. Both were originally from the West Bank – Nasasrah from the town of Beit Furik and Qasim from the town of Arabeh.
Nasasrah said about 200 to 300 worshippers were in the mosque for Friday prayers, and that he and his friend were sitting in the front, near the imam, or prayer leader. The imam was delivering the sermon when the gunman burst into the mosque, he said.
“Panic spread all over the place,” Nasasrah said.
“Some started saying Allahu akbar (God is great). We scrambled to leave toward a second door that leads to a hall and then to the street, but the bullets brought us down.”
“Two people came on top of me, and he (the gunman) approached us and opened fire. Both were killed and I felt them dying,” Nasasrah said. “I felt their blood. I myself was shoot and I thought ‘I’m dying’.”
He said he uttered the words that devout Muslims speak before their death – “there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.”
Nasasrah, a car dealer, said most of the worshippers were from Asia, including Indonesia, India, Singapore and Malaysia, and that Arabs made up a smaller part of the congregation.
The attack left him and other Muslims in the area worried and puzzled.
“I never heard a racist word in this country,” he said.
“I don’t know what happened and why. I will not leave this country. Our lives are well established here, our homes, works, family is here and we will not leave.”
As a young man, Nasasrah studied English in the Syrian capital of Damascus, and then worked as a translator at the New Zealand embassy in Saudi Arabia for 14 years. The father of three moved to New Zealand in 1990. His three children graduated from universities in New Zealand and have established their lives in the country.
Mohammed Elyan
Mohammed Elyan, a Jordanian in his 60s who co-founded one of the mosques in 1993, was among those wounded, as was his son, Atta, who is in his 30s. That is according to Muath Elyan, Mohammed’s brother, who said he spoke to Mohammed’s wife after the shooting.
Muath said his brother helped establish the mosque a year after arriving in New Zealand, where he teaches engineering at a university and runs a consultancy. He said his brother last visited Jordan two years ago.
“He used to tell us life was good in New Zealand and its people are good and welcoming. He enjoyed freedom there and never complained about anything,” Muath said.
“I’m sure this bloody crime doesn’t represent the New Zealanders.”
Muhammad Amin Nasir, 67
Nasir and his son were just 200 metres (219 yards) from the Al Noor mosque on Friday when everything went wrong. They had no idea that a white supremacist had just slaughtered at least 41 people inside the mosque. A car that had been driving by suddenly stopped, and a man leaned out the window pointing a gun at them.
They ran as the bullets began to fly. But at 67, Nasir could not keep up with his 35-year-old son. He fell behind by two or three fateful steps.
The gunman drove away. A pool of blood poured from Nasir’s body.
Nasir, who lived in Pakistan, had been regularly visiting his son in New Zealand.
He was on the third week of his visit when he was shot. He remains in an induced coma with critical injuries, though his condition has stabilised.
Adeeb Sami, 52
As the rampage inside the mosque began, Sami was shot in the back as he dove to protect his two sons, Abdullah, 29, and Ali, 23, the Gulf News reported.
“My dad is a real hero. He got shot in the back near his spine in an attempt to shield my brothers but he didn’t let anything happen to them,” Adeeb’s daughter, Heba, 30, told the Gulf News.
Sami, described by the Gulf News as a Dubai-based New Zealander of Iraqi origin, underwent surgery to remove the bullet and his daughter said he’s recovering.
Additional reporting by Reuters


New Zealand’s ‘hawkish’ China turn drives its expanding Asian security footprint

Rare New Zealand snail caught on camera laying egg from its neck for the first time

New Zealand justice set to join Hong Kong’s top court as non-permanent judge

Ageing Hong Kong needs a more accountable public healthcare system

New Zealand

New Zealand terror attack: here are some of the victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings

In this picture taken on March 16, 2019, a relative looks at a picture on a mobile phone of Pakistani national Talha Naeem, who was killed in the attacks to the Christchurch mosques in New Zealand, in the Pakistani city of Abbattabad. - A right-wing extremist armed with semi-automatic weapons rampaged through two mosques in the quiet New Zealand city of Christchurch during afternoon prayers on March 15, killing 49 worshippers and wounding dozens more. (Photo by JAMEEL AHMED / AFP)

Omar Nabi speaks to the media about losing his father Haji Daoud in the mosque attacks, at the district court in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

A relative shows the picture of Syed Areeb Ahmed, a Pakistani citizen who was killed the Christchurch mosque shooting, on his cell phone outside his home in Karachi, Pakistan, Saturday, March 16, 2019. Pakistan's foreign minister says at least six Pakistanis were killed in the New Zealand mosque shootings. Shah Mahmood Qureshi says authorities in Christchurch, where the shootings took place, are trying to determine whether three other Pakistanis who have been missing since Friday's attack were among the fatalities. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

People embrace near Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. Photo: Reuters

News

Asia

Australasia

Details emerging of some of those gunned down at two New Zealand mosques paint a picture of dozens of ordinary lives suddenly and savagely ended


Details emerging of some of the 50 people gunned down at two New Zealand mosques paint a picture of dozens of ordinary lives suddenly and savagely ended.


Terrorism

New Zealand shooting