Vadodara: Even as India’s High Commission in New Zealand said that it has been pursuing with local authorities whereabouts of seven Indians and two Indian-origin persons after the terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques, two men, both from the same family in Gujarat, are feared missing in New Zealand following the deadly terror attacks at two mosques in Christchurch in which 49 people have been reported dead.
The father-son duo of Arif and Rameez Vohra had attended Friday prayers at the Al Noor mosque, where the attack took place, family members said after failing to get in touch with them. Worried after not hearing from them, the family has now sought External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s help in the matter.
Meanwhile as per latest reports of Indians and PIOs, a software engineer from Hyderabad and a woman post-graduate student from Kerala’s Thrissur were among the 49 people killed in the attacks. Ancy Ali, a 25-year-old married woman, who had migrated to New Zealand with her husband Abdul Nassar last year, lived near the mosques that were attacked.
She was doing her post-graduation in Christchurch where her husband was working, the officer said. “We now received news from Special Branch that she has passed away,” said the officer who did not wish to be named. Software engineer Farhaj Aslan, who was reported missing, was confirmed dead, his family in Hyderabad said on Saturday. “We have received information that my brother was killed in the attack,” his elder brother Kashif Ahsan told IANS.
The 31-year-old’s father Mohammed Sayeeduddin, who was hoping to hear some good news about his son, was inconsolable. As per international reports, Ashraf Ali, a respected imam at the Masjid Al Noor mosque who was originally from Fiji, is also believed to be among the dead. Abdul Qayyum a close friend of Ashraf Ali, who is confirmed dead, said he will always remember his ‘quiet’ friend’s laugh. ‘
We went to school together,’ his friend Abdul Qayyum told Daily Mail Australia, before weeping. They were meant to go to a gathering in their home country in a few weeks, but it won’t be happening now. Qayyum said he will always remember his ‘quiet’ friend’s laugh. ‘There was a game we used to play called ‘Last Card’. ‘Every time I saw him I called him last card and when he saw me he called me last card,’ he chuckled.
Racist flashed white power gesture
Christchurch: The right-wing extremist flashed a white power gesture as he faced the first of many murder charges in a New Zealand court. Australia-born, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant gestured an upside-down “okay”, a symbol used by white power groups worldwide.
Senator egged over remark
Canberra: Far-right Australian Senator Fraser Anning who blamed the attack on Muslim immigration was egged at an event in Melbourne. Anning had said shootings highlighted a “growing fear over an increasing Muslim presence” in Australian and NZ communities.
