Thousands at funeral of slain Pakistani sufi singer

By Sardar Hussain

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AA) – Thousands of people attended the funeral of the famed Pakistani Sufi singer Amjid Sabri who was buried on Thursday, a day after he was gunned down in the southern port city Karachi.

He was buried next to his father Ghulam Farid Sabri, another famed Qawwal beloved by many Pakistanis for his renditions of Sufi mystic songs.

Police have not yet made an arrest after Sabri's car was shot five times, in what Senior Superintendent of Police Muqaddas Haider called a "targeted killing, before he was due to join a Ramadan broadcast on Pakistani television.

The killing has been roundly condemned in Pakistan, with people paying tribute outside his home and TV channels broadcasting his songs in memory.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Karachi's most influential political party, called for three days of mourning.

“Totally shocked to hear the news of Amjad Sabri. May Allah bless him with Jannah [heaven] for he praised Him & His Prophet beautifully all his life," tweeted the Speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq.

Members of Sabri's family were split over whether he had received death threats in the past amid claims that police could have done more to protect him.

Mustafa Qadri, a human rights researcher at Amnesty International tweeted: “Shocked and saddened by news of the killing of Amjad Sabri, not just a crime but an attack on our culture and heritage.”

The Taliban and other militant Islamist groups have carried out major attacks on Sufi mosques and shrines in recent years, including the 2010 bombing of the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore which killed more than 40 people.

Karachi, a city of 20 million and Pakistan’s economic hub, is frequently hit by religious, political and ethnic violence.