A tearful farewell: Victims of mosque collapse laid to rest

Thousands attend funeral of 14 people who died on Tuesday after roof of mosque collapsed.

LAHORE: The 24 victims of Tuesday’s mosque collapse were laid to rest on Wednesday amidst tears.

Funerals of three of the deceased were offered late on Tuesday night, while funeral prayers for 14 were offered on Wednesday at Daroghawala Chowk.

Thousands of people from nearby localities attended the prayers, led by Jamia Masjid Data Darbar prayer leader Ramazan Sialvi. Apart from the Lahore DCO, no representative of the government was present on the occasion. The victims were buried in the Daroghawala graveyard. Rescue 1122 and Baghbanpura police had earlier identified bodies of 18 out of the 24 bodies recovered from the rubble.

They are: Hafiz Hamas, 13, Muhammad Ghulam Fareed, 24, Ashiq Ali, 45, Ziaul Hasan Gilani, 65, Akram, 50, Abdul Aziz, 80, Hamza, 19, Abdul Majeed, 75, Muhammad Anwar, 60, Khalid, 28, Asghar Ali, 30, Zafar, 65, Irfan, 30 Zafar, 90, Muhammad Saleem, 50, Tayyab, 16, Yasir, 34, and Huzaifa, 53.

Fareed, a relative of one of the deceased, said that the victim was a factory worker and had come to the mosque to offer prayers. Ashiq Ali, who was an estate agent, had come to see some friends in the locality, while Saleem was in the area to get his car repaired. Jam Sajjad Hussain, the Rescue 1122 spokesman, said that 24 bodies had been pulled out and seven people were hospitalised. He said that the rescuers were still removing the rubble.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2014.