Houston’s Muslim community gathered to offer prayers Sunday at the funeral service for a 17-year-old Pakistani exchange student killed in a mass shooting at her southeast Texas high school.
About 1,000 people, many with Pakistani roots and wearing traditional Muslim dress, converged on an Islamic center in Stafford to honour Sabika Sheikh, whose body was brought by hearse to the somber service from Santa Fe, the nearby small rural town where a student murdered 10 people including eight students.
Among the grievers was the late teenager's first cousin who lives in the United States. She said Sheik's relatives are totally crushed.
"The family back home, we are in contact with them. They're crying each minute. Her mom is trying to claim ignorance at the present time," Shaheera al Basid, a graduate understudy in the US capital Washington, told AFP at the burial service.
“It’s a shock we need our entire life to recover from,” the 26-year-old added.
Men lined up in rows offered traditional mourning prayers as Sheikh’s coffin, draped in the green and white flag of Pakistan, was brought into a small, cramped sanctuary.
Sheikh had been due to return home in mere weeks, in time for Eidul Fitr.. “It’s a shock, it’s so sad,” said realtor Ike Samad, 67, who was born in Pakistan but has lived here most of his adult life and raised his children as Americans.
“I came here just like her, as a student,” he recalled. “God forbid that could have happened to me when I was here. As a parent, it is just devastating.”
No comments:
Post a Comment