CHRISTCHURCH: The Maori performed the ‘Haka’ war dance on Friday as a tribute to Pakistani national Naeem Rashid and his son Talha Naeem who were among those killed in the New Zealand mosque attacks a week ago.
Rashid heroically sacrificed his life while trying to stop a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15.
Dressed in shalwar kameez, the Maori – the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand —lined up after the burial and performed the ‘Haka’. The dance whose origins lie with the indigenous Maori community has become a global symbol of New Zealand as the battle cry of its national rugby team, the All Blacks.
Rashid, a resident of Jinnahabad in Abbottabad and a professor in New Zealand, was present at the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch when a white supremacist terrorist opened fire at the worshippers. Rashid was injured in his bid to overpower the attacker but passed away a day later after succumbing to his injuries.
His son, 22-year-old Talha, a civil engineering graduate, was among those who lost their lives in the shooting.
Eight Pakistanis martyred in the New Zealand mosque attacks were buried on Friday.
A day earlier, the Pakistani High Commissioner to New Zealand said the body of only one of the nine Pakistani martyrs would be repatriated back to his motherland.
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