LAHORE, July 19: The bodies of two Pakistani students, who were shot dead in Washington D.C. early this week, were laid to rest in Jauhar Town and Defence on Saturday.
Hundreds of people attended their funeral prayers at the State Cement Society, Jauhar Town, and the Defence Housing Authority graveyards. None of the government officials, however, turned up to attend the funeral prayers. Their bodies were brought back to Lahore in the early hours of Saturday.
Hamad Chaudhry, 22, BCS and Sair Saeed Butt, 26, MS in Information Technology students were reportedly shot dead by five African-Americans in a robbery attempt near the residence of Sair Butt in Glen Burmie in the early hours of Monday last.
Muhammad Afzal Chaudhry, the father of Hamad, told Dawn that ‘security element in USA’ was never discussed during his meeting with his son on different occasions. However, he said his son was aware of the fact that African- Americans often snatched money at gunpoint. He said his son was a brilliant student and wanted to excel in the field of computer sciences.
Muhammad Afzal who is a general manager in a fertilizer company intends to follow the case vigorously in the US to get the culprits punished. He said the local police in the US had informed the families that one of the killers had been identified and would be apprehended soon.
Muhammad Afzal was not concerned whether the hate crime or a robbery attempt was the cause of his son’s death. “I have lost my son in a state which is considered to be one of the safest places in the world.”
Ehsanul Haq, the uncle of Hamad, said that Hamad and he lived together in Prince George County for the last five months. He said that Hamad left the house to meet his friend Sair late Sunday night. Sair’s Hungarian girl friend was also accompanying them when they were intercepted by five men at gunpoint. The robbers deprived them of their belongings — cash, credit cards and cell phones.
Quoting the Hungarian girl, he said the boys had abused them which infuriated the robbers and one of them opened fire on them. A bullet hit Sair’s shoulder which pierced through his heart, killing him on the spot, while Hamad sustained an injury in his chest. She said that she called the police who reached there after five minutes and shifted Hamad to a nearby hospital where he died after some 10 hours.
Sair’s parents and siblings who were in deep shock refused to talk to reporters. However, one of Sair’s cousins, Kashif, said he was third among three brothers and three sisters and his father Saeed Butt had worked for an oil company in Kuwait for 25 years.
Sair had completed his BS from Canada before moving to the US for higher studies.
