A woman whose husband and son died in the Christchurch terror attacks has shared how she forced herself to watch footage of the shooting to find out what happened to her loved ones.
Amber Naeem's husband, Rashid, watched his son die before trying to physically overpower the gunman and being shot himself, the moment captured on the gunman's body camera. He later died from his wounds in hospital.
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"At first I didn't want to tell anyone that it was Naeem but then I said, yes say it, it was him," Naeem told Channel 7.
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Her husband, a Pakistani-born teacher, will now be recognised posthumously in his home country for his courage, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Sunday.
"Pakistan is proud of Mian [Sir] Naeem Rashid who was martyred trying to tackle the terrorist and his courage will be recognised with a national award," Khan tweeted on Sunday.
However, Naeem had to find out secondhand what happened to her 21-year-old son Talha after he was shot and fell on to another man inside the mosque.
"The person was trying to move and he said in his ears 'don't, don't move, stay, stay still.' He wanted to save him," a friend of the widow said.
Other women spoke of being helpless inside the mosque while gunshots rang out, killing their loved ones.
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Two pregnant women hid inside a bathroom, knowing their husbands were being shot at, while another woman ran out of a room to check if her paraplegic husband was safe, only to be gunned down in the street. The man survived.
The Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton was designed to protect women if ever a threat entered the building from its main entrance. Channel 7 believes the shooter didn't know about the women's-only prayer room located off the main hall.
"The men should be in the front. If something happens they get it, not the ladies and children. And that's what happened, it proved [to be wise]," Naeem's friend said.
Newshub.
