Pakistani Embassy Unaware If Russian National to Be Returned for Burial

Pakistani embassy in Russia is not aware of whether the family of Akhlas Akhlaq will be allowed to have him buried in Russia, according to the embassy's press counselor Raja Abdul Qayyum.

MOSCOW, December 22 (Sputnik) — The Pakistani embassy in Russia is not aware of whether the family of the executed Russian national Akhlas Akhlaq will be allowed to have him buried in Russia, the embassy's press counselor Raja Abdul Qayyum told Sputnik News Agency on Monday.

Qayyum said that he "does not know for sure" if the repatriation of the body will be permitted.

"I do not know if the issue is under discussion but his mother is going to Pakistan. She is at the embassy where she will be granted a visa," he said.

Qayyum added that Akhlaq would not be buried until his mother arrives in Pakistan. The counselor said that Akhlq's father had collected his son's body and the Russian national is intended to be buried in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir territory in Pakistan.

He also said that the Pakistani government did not wait for Akhlaq's mother to arrive for the execution to be carried out because Akhlaq's father was there. The father was supposed to meet with his son before the execution, but the diplomat could not confirm whether the meeting took place.

On December 21, Akhlaq was executed in the northern Pakistani city of Faisalabad for attempting to assassinate the country's former president in 2003. The execution was carried out four days after the death penalty moratorium in Pakistan was lifted on December 17 following the killing of more than 140 people, including 132 children, by the Taliban militants in the city of Peshawar.