Thousands attend funeral of slain Sufi musician in Pakistan

Amjad Sabri, one of South Asia’s most popular singers of the 'qawwali', Sufi devotional music that dates back more than 700 years, was gunned down on Wednesday in an attack claimed by a faction of the Taliban.

Thousands of people attend the funeral procession of Amjad Sabri on June 23, 2016, who was killed when unidentified gunmen open fire on his car in Karachi, Pakistan one day earlier. Reuters

Karachi // Thousands of Pakistanis on Thursday thronged the streets of Karachi to attend the funeral of one of the country’s best known Sufi musicians, who was gunned down a day earlier in an attack claimed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban.

Amjad Sabri, 45, was one of South Asia’s most popular singers of the “qawwali”, Sufi devotional music that dates back more than 700 years.

Sabri’s death was the latest in a high-profile series of attacks in Karachi, a megacity of 20 million plagued by political, ethnic and sectarian violence.

Funeral prayers for Sabri, which were held on the city’s major Ibn-e-Sina thoroughfare, brought together large numbers of both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, men and women, with many praising his devotional music, humble lifestyle and charitable work.

He was shot dead by two gunmen riding a motorcycle on Wednesday as he drove his car to a TV studio where he was due to perform for a Ramadan show. Another male relative, Saleem Sabri, was critically injured in the attack.

Senior police official Muqaddas Haider called the killing an “act of terror” without naming possible suspects.

Dozens of police and paramilitary Rangers on Thursday guarded the funeral procession winding its way down the road, as a sea of mourners, some wearing black armbands, others in coloured turbans that signified their sects, surrounded the ambulance carrying Sabri’s body.

Many thronged the ambulance carrying Sabri’s body to the funeral, blocking its progress as they tried to touch the vehicle, a gesture of reverence for the deceased.

Shops and businesses in the Liaquatabad and Nazimbad areas shut down for the day.

Mohammad Farooq Khan, a 36-year-old who contracted polio as a child, said he had walked 12 kilometres from the city’s north on his crutches to attend the singer’s last rites.

“Allah has brought to here to participate in the funeral of that great man,” he said.

Another mourner Shaheen Iqbal said she had asked Sabri for help just days earlier.

“He gave me rations for Ramadan and some money. He also promised to help me get a small apartment,” she said, tearfully.

Some observers have said that Sabri may have been assassinated because he was a high-profile Sufi, a mystic Islamic order that believes in living saints, worships through music, and is viewed as heretical by some hardline groups including the Taliban.

A spokesman for a branch of a little known faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Qari Saifullah Saif, claimed the killing on Wednesday, saying it was in retaliation for a song that the hardline group considers blasphemous.

In 2014, Sabri was caught up in a blasphemy case involving a Sufi song he had sung on a morning television show that mentioned religious figures in a way some deemed offensive.

Violence is common in Karachi despite a sharp decline in murders since the Pakistani military launched a crackdown two years ago against suspected militants and violent criminals.

In May, gunmen shot dead prominent Pakistani rights activist Khurram Zaki, known for his outspoken stance against the Taliban and other radical extremist groups, in the central part of the city.

In April last year, prominent activist Sabeen Mahmud was shot and killed while travelling in her car.

* Agence France-Presse and Reuters