Bodies of 4 Pakistanis Killed in Oman Mosque Attack Returned Home

The bodies of four Pakistanis killed in an attack on a Shiite mosque in Oman earlier this week have been returned to Pakistan and handed over to their families, officials announced on Friday.

Relatives of the victims were present when Pakistan International Airlines flights landed at the Islamabad and Lahore airports. Abdullah Hafeez, an airline spokesperson, stated that the repatriation was carried out under government orders and the bodies were given to their families for burial.

Later, hundreds of mourners attended the victims’ funerals in their hometowns.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack during a meeting with Oman’s ambassador in Islamabad.

On Monday, gunmen stormed a mosque in Muscat, Oman’s capital, during special prayers on the eve of the Shiite mourning festival of Ashoura, which commemorates the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, at Karbala in present-day Iraq.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, marking the first time the Sunni extremist group has asserted responsibility for such an action in Oman. Omani police reported that the three assailants, all Omani citizens and brothers, were killed in a subsequent gunfight.

Many of those inside the mosque were Pakistanis, who constitute a significant portion of the nearly 2 million migrants working in Oman’s economy in construction and other fields. Pakistan’s ambassador in Oman, Imran Ali, noted that Pakistan was not the specific target and that some Pakistanis died while attempting to save other worshippers.

During his meeting with Oman’s ambassador Fahad Sulaiman, Prime Minister Sharif commended the envoy’s role in repatriating the bodies of the Pakistanis killed in Muscat. Sharif also offered Pakistan’s support to Oman in combating terrorism, emphasizing the need to eliminate it in all forms, according to a statement from his office on Friday.

Additionally, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, stating, “Such acts of terrorism and violence against peaceful civilians cannot be condoned on any grounds whatsoever.”

Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, during a news conference in Islamabad, highlighted that the attack underscored the ongoing threat posed by terrorist organizations and the necessity of international cooperation to combat them. She also mentioned that Pakistan had offered its assistance to Oman in the investigation.