ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has affirmed that Pakistan flag will remain half-mast at all national buildings on Monday to mourn the deaths of Pakistanis who were martyred in the terrorist attacks on mosques in New Zealand.
Addressing a news briefing in the federal capital, the Foreign Minister confirmed that death tolls of Pakistani origin people in the terror attack in New Zealand have reached nine.
He added that another Pakistani was in ICU at a hospital in New Zealand with severe gunshot wounds.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he spoke to New Zealand Foreign Minister on the telephone in length who said the assailant attacked two mosques and the whole act continued for 36 minutes.
The foreign minister said the identification of bodies was a complicated process, however, all of them have been identified. “From tomorrow (Monday), process of handing these [bodies of martyred] over to relatives will begin”, he said.
“Families of six martyred want to bury them in New Zealand while three have expressed wish to bury their dead in Pakistan”.
Speaking on the issue of increasing Islamaphobia in the west, Shah said that an emergency meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will take place on March 22 in Turkey.
While talking about National Action Plan, the foreign minister said that the matter of National security rests way above politics.
He assured that he will write a letter to all parliamentary leaders in order to take them into confidence on further progress in the implementation of National Action Plan.
He said the leaders will be invited for a meeting on 28th of this month at the parliament house in Islamabad to seek their opinions and guidance on the way to move forward, in the backdrop of post-Pulwama developments.
