ISLAMABAD, 14 May 2006 — Tens of thousands of mourners attended the funeral yesterday of a Pakistani man, Amir Cheema, who died in German custody while awaiting trial for trying to kill a newspaper editor over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), sources said.
More than 20,000 attended funeral prayers for 28-year-old Amir Cheema in the dusty town of Saroki near Lahore, said a local government spokesman. An official from an Islamic party put the figure at close to 50,000.
“It was a big funeral, participated by up to 20,000 people,” Punjab provincial government spokesman Chaudhry Iqbal said.
“Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi provided his own helicopter to transport the body from Lahore airport to his native village,” Iqbal said.
“The funeral was held peacefully,” he said, adding that about a dozen people fainted due to scorching heat.
An adviser to the chief minister of Punjab province laid a wreath on the coffin when it arrived in Lahore yesterday morning before it was flown to the family village in Saroki.
Earlier government officials and close relatives were present on the tarmac when the plane carrying Cheema’s body landed in Lahore from Frankfurt.
Hundreds of people, mostly members of hard-line parties had gathered outside the airport but police prevented them from entering the premises, witnesses said.
“We adopted strict security measures and no incident took place,” police officer Ahmed Din said.
People in Saroki, chanting “Long Live Martyr Cheema” and “God is Great,” showered rose petals on the coffin as it was taken from his family home for burial in a nearby graveyard, witnesses said.
Some party activists carried banners calling on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to “Go and bring the killers.”
Despite a post-mortem this week in the presence of two Pakistani officials finding Cheema had committed suicide, Pakistan’s main opposition alliance has labeled him a martyr.
Cheema, was found dead in his cell at the Moabit prison in Berlin on May 3 while awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting a German newspaper editor over cartoons of the Prophet.
German prosecutors said Wednesday that a post-mortem proved that he committed suicide with a noose fashioned from his own clothes in his cell.
The post-mortem examination took place in the presence of two Pakistani officials, one from the police and one from the Federal Investigation Agency, they said.
Cheema’s father has alleged his son, who had been held for six weeks awaiting a court appearance, was tortured to death.
His death sparked anger among religious parties, which called for Pakistan to lodge a protest with Germany and boycott German products.
He had been charged by German prosecutors after entering the Berlin offices of Die Welt newspaper on March 20 armed with a knife.
Authorities said he wanted to kill the newspaper’s editor.
Earlier this year Pakistan witnessed mass demonstrations across the country over the cartoons of the Prophet, which appeared in several Western newspapers.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday spoke to Amir’s father to convey his “sympathies,” officials said. Aziz said that the death of Amir was “a human tragedy and the matter should not be politicized by any party.”
