SLAMABAD, May 14 (IslamOnline.net) – The family of Pakistani student Aamir Cheema, who breathed his last while in German police custody, has refuted the German suicide theory while the government has sent a team to investigate the death cause.
"My son was tortured to death by the German police," his father Professor Nazeer Cheema, told IslamOnline.net on Sunday, May 14.
Not only the family but many Pakistanis believe that German police killed Cheema, who was studying at the University of Applied Sciences in the Bavarian city of Muenchberg since 2004.
The Pakistani was arrested on March 20 after trying to enter the building of Axel Springer publishing house, the publisher of Die Welt newspaper, in Berlin.
He was accused of planning to attack the paper's editor for reprinting the Danish blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
German police said Cheema, 28, was later found dead in his cell, adding that he hanged himself using his own cloths.
German Ambassador in Islamabad, Gunter Mullak said Cheema wrote a will before committing suicide.
"The deceased asked for his burial in (the Muslim holy city of) Makkah and desired for offering his last prayers in the holiest mosque of Makkah in the same will."
Under Islam, committing suicide is a major sin and is explicitly prohibited in the Noble Qur’an.
Burial Pressures
Mourners shower rose petals over the coffin, hailing Cheema as a martyr. (Reuters)
Cheema'a body was flown to Lahore on Saturday, May 13, and was received by the provincial minister Shujah Khanzada, who laid a wreath of flowers on it.
The body was then flown over to Gujranwala Cantt in the official helicopter of the Punjab government where it was received by district liaison officer and Corps Commander, Gujranwala.
The family has accused the government of pressing them to bury him in their ancestral village of Soroki in Central Punjab.
"The Pakistani government forced us to bury him in our ancestral village whereas we wanted to bury him in Rawalpindi," said his father.
The family wanted to bury Cheema in Rawalpindi, Islamabad's twin city, where public opinion is more charged than in other places.
Many federal ministers have visited the residence of Cheema in Rawalpindi to pay condolences.
The government also provided helicopter to bring his body from Lahore to his ancestral village.
Rawalpindi and its environs were the focal point of activities during the protest campaign in Pakistan against the cartoon publication.
Last September, Denmark's mass-circulation daily Jyllands Posten commissioned and printed 12 caricatures of the Prophet, including one showing him with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.
The images, considered blasphemous under Islam, triggered global and sometimes violent protests against Denmark.
Pakistani Investigators
The government has rejected the German argument and has sent a team of Federal Investigation Agency, Pakistani's premier investigation agency, to Berlin to investigate the causes of death.
"We have sent a team of experts to Germany to ascertain the real causes of death of Aamir Cheema and we will be able to say something after we get the facts," one government official told IOL.
The report of German police sent to the government said Cheema had refused to go for a walk while other persons in his cell opted for it.
When they returned to the cell after half an hour they found him hanged with a cord used to tie his Shalwar (pajama).
Islamabad has raised two questions with the German government.
The first has to do with the authorities' failure to monitor the student's activities through the camera installed in the cell.
Second, what precautionary measures did the German authorities take after concluding he was a psycho patient.
Outraged
Most of the leaders of religious parties visited the residence of Cheema in Rawalpindi and participated in his funeral.
The religious groups and parties are also contesting the suicide theory and staged protest demonstrations in which the German flag was burnt.
"This is clear that he died in the custody of German police after he was arrested for making murder attempt on a person who was involved in blasphemous act," Chief of Jamat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussien Ahmed, told reporters Saturday.
On Friday, May 12, three MPs from Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal - a coalition of six religious parties - introduced a motion in the National Assembly, seeking a debate on Cheema's death case.
Thousands of mourners defied the blistering heat to attend the funeral service.
The mood of the Pakistani public opinion was reflected by the banners and posters displayed in every major Pakistani city, describing Cheema as a martyr.
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