By Hamza Hameed Mirza

The scene there is the same as when someone leaves the world. There are tents on the porch outside and men are there and women are in the drawing room inside.

Meanwhile, the men of the house came to the drawing room to take the body of 27-year-old Noor Muqaddam to a nearby mosque and offer funeral prayers.

But the story of Noor Muqaddam’s death is very painful because it was not a natural death.

The head of Noor, wrapped in a shroud in the coffin, is severed from the body and it was not an accident but a heartbreaking incident of brutal murder.

Noor Muqaddam, from Islamabad, was killed on July 20, according to a police investigation. Noor Muqaddam was strangled to death with a sharp instrument. The FIR in the murder of Noor Muqaddam was registered on the complaint of his father and former ambassador Shaukat Muqaddam in which Zahir Jaffer, a friend of the victim, was named.

On the occasion of the leave, the men of the house are consoling the women and then Noor’s mother leans on her daughter’s face and says, “I surrendered to Allah, I surrendered to Allah.”

These were the words she kept repeating.

What happened to Noor was told to his mother much later. She would ask if she had been shot, and everyone would say yes.

On the way to the mosque, the coffin was placed in the car and everyone there was silent, looking depressed and shocked and as if no one had anything to say.

Noor’s funeral prayers were offered at the Jamia Masjid in the Naval Anchorage area of Islamabad and from there she was shifted to the cemetery for burial.

Noor’s father, his friends and relatives were present.

Everyone was trying to comfort them and give them relief from their pain and suffering.

Standing in the blazing sun in these difficult moments, they met each and every one of them with great patience, but then tears began to flow from their eyes.