Bodies of six victims returned to families – NZ mosque attacks
19th March 2019
Four days after the terror attack, relatives were anxiously waiting Tuesday for word on when they can bury their loved ones.
(AP)
Four days after the attack, relatives were anxiously waiting Tuesday for word on when they can bury their loved ones.
Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be cleansed and buried as soon as possible after death, usually within 24 hours. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said authorities hope to release all the bodies by Wednesday, and police have said authorities are working with pathologists and coroners to complete the task as soon as they can.
Police said in a statement that their "absolute priority is to get this right and ensure that no mistakes are made." "Full force of the law" New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed on Tuesday never to utter the name of the twin-mosque terrorist as she opened a sombre session of parliament with "as salaam alaikum" message of peace to Muslims.
"He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety," she told assembled lawmakers of the 28-year-old Australian accused of the slaughter.
"That is why you will never hear me mention his name.
He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless."
"I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them."
Dressed in black, the 38-year-old leader opened her remarks in parliament with the symbolism of the greeting uttered across the Islamic world.
She closed her address with "Wa alaikum salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh - May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you too."
"On Friday, it will be a week since the attack, members of the Muslim community will gather for worship on that day. Let us acknowledge their grief as they do." Gunman 'lucid' - court lawyer Gunman in New Zealand's mosque attacks, Brenton Tarrant, is lucid and understands the situation facing him, the lawyer assigned to handle his case told media on Monday.
Tarrant declined to be represented by a lawyer, but the court appointed duty lawyer Richard Peters to handle the case.
"He was lucid," Peters told Australian TV network Channel Nine.
"He seemed to appreciate what he was facing and why he was there." Pakistan mourns Among the dead, nine belonged to Pakistan – four of them from Karachi – whereas several Pakistanis were also injured in the attack.
Pakistanis observed a day of mourning on Monday to show solidarity with victims of the terror attack.
Naeem Rasheed, one of the victims who tried to stop the attacker and secure his fellow Muslims, has been declared a hero by Pakistani government and the international media.
His mother and a brother have left for New Zealand as his family has decided to bury him in Christchurch.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday announced a national award for Rasheed for his heroic work. Tarrant visited Hungary and Israel Authorities say Tarrant arrived in Hungary as a tourist last November on a train that runs between Timisoara, Romania, and Budapest, Hungary.
Hungary's Counterterrorism Centre said in a statement that Brenton Tarrant entered the country on November 26, 2018 at the border railway crossing in Lokoshaza about 250 km southeast of Budapest.
The statement said Tarrant was travelling by himself when he entered Hungary, did not appear on any terrorist databases, had not been flagged by authorities elsewhere and would have been allowed to stay in Hungary for up to 90 days without a visa.
The centre says it is still investigating what Tarrant did and where he went while he was in Hungary.
He also made a brief visit to Israel in late 2016, Israeli officials said on Sunday.
The Australian national entered Israel in October 2016 on a three-month tourist visa and stayed for nine days, an official with Israel's Population and Immigration Authority told Reuters.
The official said there were no further details available on what Tarrant, 28, did during his stay in Israel.
New gun laws to make New Zealand safer - Ardern New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday said she would announce new gun laws within days, after the immigrant-hating terrorist killed 50 people in attacks at two mosques in the city of Christchurch.
Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, was charged with one count of murder on Saturday. He was remanded without a plea and is due back in court on April 5 where police said he was likely to face more charges.
Ardern did not detail the new gun laws but has said she supports a ban on automatic weapons.
The organisers of New Zealand's largest gun show say they have cancelled the event to show respect for victims of the Christchurch massacre and because of "elevated security risks."
Intelligence inquiry into massacre to be launched Ardern said an inquiry will be held into what intelligence, police, customs and immigration knew or should have known about Tarrant and the events leading up to the massacre, to see whether the terrorist attack could have been prevented.
"Today was also agreed that there will be an inquiry to look at the specific circumstances leading up to the Christchurch mosques terror attack on March 15.
The purpose of this inquiry is to look at what all relevant agencies knew or could or should have known about the individual and his activities, including his access to weapons and whether they could have been in a position to prevent the attack." Tarrant sacks lawyer, plans to represent himself in court Tarrant, who appeared in court on Saturday and was charged with murder, on Monday sacked his state-appointed lawyer.
Peters, who represented the terrorist during the hearing, said the 28-year-old "wants to be self-represented in this case."
"The way he presented was rational and someone who was not suffering any mental disability. He seemed to understand what was going on," Peters said.
Under New Zealand law, if Tarrant pleads not guilty his case would normally go to trial, raising the possibility that he could face survivors and victims' families in court.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said authorities believe only one man was responsible for the terrorist attack who is in custody but the threat level in the country still remains high.
Ardern said the threat level remains high so authorities can identify trends and patterns of attacks.
Faith in system Mustafa Farouk, president of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, told reporters he had faith in the system.
"As a community, we would like that person [the accused] to go through the process, the due process, and to be given all his rights," he said.
"We believe in the justice system here and we know it will do what is right."
But, he cautioned, the attitudes that gave rise to the killing – documented in a racist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant screed released online minutes before the attacks began – must be tackled.
"This rise in hatred ... by people who call themselves right-wing, whether smaller groups or through reckless politicians, should not be allowed to continue."
"What happened to our community here will happen to another community," he said.
Ardern has announced that New Zealand will hold a national commemoration service to mark the attack.
Christchurch gun shop sold rifles online to terrorist A Christchurch gun shop on Monday acknowledged selling guns online to the 28-year-old white supremacist who carried out the terrorist attacks, which upended New Zealand's reputation as among the world's most tolerant and safe countries.
At a news conference, Gun City owner David Tipple said the store sold four guns and ammunition to Tarrant through a "police-verified online mail order process." The store "detected nothing extraordinary," about the buyer, he said. Gun owners, sellers move against semi-automatics "Until today I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semi-automatic rifle. On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn’t outweigh the risk of misuse," John Hart, a farmer and Green Party candidate from Masterton said on Twitter on Monday.
"We don’t need these in our country. We have make sure it’s #NeverAgain."
New Zealand's top online marketplace Trade Me Group said it was halting the sale of semi-automatic weapons in the wake of Friday's attack.
New Zealand, a country of only 5 million people, has an estimated 1.5 million firearms.
Australia introduced some of the world's toughest gun laws after its worst mass killing, the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in which a lone gunman killed 35 people using a US staple of mass shootings in that country – the semi-automatic AR-15, the same weapon used in the Christchurch terror attacks.
Australia banned semi-automatic weapons and launched a national gun amnesty. Tens of thousands of weapons were handed in as laws were enacted to make it much tougher to own firearms.Source: trtworld.com