Thousands attend funeral of NZ terror victim in Pakistan

Thousands on Monday attended the funeral of Syed Areeb Ahmad, one of the dead in terror attacks at New Zealand mosques earlier this month, in southern port city of Karachi.

Earlier, his dead body was brought from New Zealand and received by his family at Karachi airport. A good number of family members, friends, and a provincial minister reached the airport to receive his body.

Emotional scenes were witnessed as the coffin carrying Ahmad's body was brought to his residence located a middle-end area of the city's central district as mourners, including his mother and sister, wailed.

Family members, and friends hugged to solace each other with tears in their eyes.

Ahmad's funeral prayers were held in a playground near his residence before he was laid to rest in a nearby graveyard.

Ahmad, 27, was the only son of his parents who went to offer Friday prayers at Al-Noor Mosque Christchurch, one of the two mosques, where a terrorist shot him together with 49 other Muslims in a cold-blooded shooting -- another sign of rising Islamophobia in the West.

Among dead, nine belonged to Pakistan -- four of them from Karachi -- whereas several Pakistanis were also injured in the gruesome attack, the bloodiest in New Zealand's peace time history.

Ahmad is the only Pakistani victim who was laid to rest in his homeland.

A chartered accountant by profession, Areeb was offered a job by a local chartered accountant firm and he moved to New Zealand in 2017.

He got chartered accountant degree with flying colors from Pakistan's top-ranked institute, and was offered a lucrative job in Christchurch soon after completion of his studies.

He had visited his hometown Karachi just one and a half months before the tragedy to attend the engagement of his younger sister.