Canadian premier remembers Muslim family killed in 'terrorist attack’ in 2021

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commemorated Thursday a "terrorist attack' that killed four members of a Muslim family in Ontario in 2021.

"Three years ago, Talat, Salman, Madiha, and Yumnah Afzaal were murdered. Three generations killed and a young boy orphaned by a cowardly terrorist attack," Trudeau wrote on X.

He noted the "painful anniversary," while denouncing Islamophobia and pledged to fight against it.

"We remember that Islamophobia kills, and it is on every Canadian to fight it, wherever and whenever we see it," he said.

Three generations of the Pakistani-origin family were killed when a pickup truck plowed into them as they walked on a road in London -- a small city about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Toronto.

The victims were Salman Afzaal, a 46-year-old physiotherapist; his wife, Madiha, 44, who was working on her doctorate in engineering at London’s Western University; their daughter Yumna, a 15-year-old honor-roll student and Salman’s mother, Talat, 74, the family matriarch.

The sole survivor was the couple’s 9-year-old son.

Nathaniel Veltman, the driver, was given four life sentences for the murders and another life sentence for the attempted murder of the boy.