PM Shehbaz, others offer funeral prayers in absentia for martyred Hamas chief

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, parliamentarians and hundreds of thousands of people on Friday offered funeral prayers in absentia for martyred Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Islamabad.  

The funeral prayer was held across the country as part of the government’s decisions made on Thursday which also included the observance of a day of mourning.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, and leaders of the ruling coalition as well as the opposition parties also attended the funeral prayer.

“An incident of worst brutality has come to the fore, which the entire world, including Pakistan, Turkiye, Malaysia, China and Russia, has condemned in the strongest words,” Sharif said at an earlier press talk on Friday, referring to Haniyeh’s assassination.

Sharif further said that Pakistan would continue to provide relief goods and medical assistance to the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, funeral prayers for martyred Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were held in Qatar on Friday at Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab mosque.

Haniyeh, the Palestinian group’s political chief, had resided in Doha along with other members of the Hamas political office.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh will be buried at a cemetery in Lusail, north of the Qatari capital.

Ismail Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in the pre-dawn attack on their accommodation in Tehran early Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said.

He had travelled to Iran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran and others of the attack, has not directly commented on it.

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The Hamas leader’s martyrdom came just hours after Israel struck a southern suburb of Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr, the military commander of Hamas-allied Lebanese group Hezbollah.

The killings are the latest of several incidents that have inflamed regional tensions during the Gaza war which has drawn in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

A public funeral ceremony for Haniyeh was held in Tehran on Thursday with crowds of mourners paying their respects.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh having earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.