Family to ask for forgiveness, place in heaven for Azahari
Family to ask for forgiveness, place in heaven for Azahari
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur
The family of slain Malaysian master bombmaker Azahari Husin will ask for forgiveness and pray for a place in heaven for him, a relative said Wednesday.
"Everybody is relieved the body will be brought back. My sister (Azahari's widow) Wan Noraini and all the family members will pray to Allah to ask for forgiveness if indeed Azahari is a terrorist.
"So that he can go to heaven. A place in heaven is the wish of all Muslims," the widow's brother Wan Kamaruddin told AFP.
Azahari, one of Asia's most wanted men and a member of the Al- Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist network, was killed during a shootout with Indonesian police last week after they tracked him to a bomb-filled hideaway in East Java.
Wan Kamaruddin said the family thanked the Malaysian and Indonesian authorities for assisting in the return of the body.
"You know it is very important in Muslim culture for us to visit the graves of our family members. Now my sister and her two young children can visit the grave to pay their respect," he said.
Wan Kamaruddin said Wan Noraini Jusoh and other family members cannot accept that Azahari was a terrorist.
"I can't accept it. My sister too cannot accept it," he said.
Wan Kamaruddin said Azahari, who leaves behind an eight-year- old daughter and a seven-year-old son, would be buried in his home town in Jasin, Malacca, south of here Thursday.
The brother of Azahari has seen the body and confirmed it was that of his brother, and planned to fly it to Malaysia for burial on Thursday, an Indonesian police officer said.
"It was concluded by the representative of Dr. Azahari's family, who said that the body is really that of Dr. Azahari," National Police Deputy Spokesman Sunarko Danu Ardanto told journalists.
Wan Noraini had said she regarded the death of her husband as an expression of Allah's will.
Azahari was blamed for orchestrating several attacks, including the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people on the Indonesian resort island.