A “brilliant university” mother, a cricket-loving physiotherapist father, good students, a loving grandmother: originally from Pakistan, the four Muslim victims of a car-ramming attack on Sunday in Canada, trained in many regards a “model family” according to their relatives.
The attack described as a “terrorist” act by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed the lives of three generations of the Afzaal family: Madiha Salman, 44, her husband Salman, 46, their daughter Yumna, 15, and his paternal grandmother, aged 74.
The couple’s 9-year-old son Fayez is the sole survivor of the tragedy. Seriously injured, he is still hospitalized but his life is not in danger.
The family, who were walking together as they used to do, were waiting to cross at a crossroads when the suspect deliberately mowed them down on Sunday evening in London, a city of 500,000 people 200 km southwest of Toronto, causing the amazement and anger of a whole country.
“Anyone who knew Salman and the rest of the Afzaal family knows the model family they were as Muslims, Canadians, and Pakistanis,” their relatives said in a statement. “They were always there to give, to participate and to spread kindness”, we can read.
– “Brilliant academic” –
“They worked extremely hard in their field and excelled,” they added, describing children as “studious in school”.
Madiha Salman was completing her doctorate at the University of Western Ontario, located in London. She arrived in Canada in 2007 after university studies in her country of origin, which she had pursued in the department of civil engineering and environment, her specialty.
“She was a brilliant scholar, mother, and caring friend,” it writes on the “Gofundme” crowdfunding ad set up for them after the drama.
In recent years, she had shared photos of her smiling children or gifts they had made for Mother’s Day on Facebook.
Her husband, Salman Afzaal, was a physiotherapist and a “valued member of the London community”. “Whether it was at his local cricket matches or at the mosque, the first thing you noticed was his smile, kind and welcoming,” according to the same source.
Their daughter Yumna, who was finishing her 9th grade (the equivalent of third, editor’s note) at Oakridge High School, is described as a “benevolent friend to many”.
She will be “sadly missed by her classmates and school staff,” her school wrote.
Yumna and Fayez’s grandmother, Salman’s mother, was “a pillar of their family who cherished their daily walks”.
Two fundraisers have been set up on crowdfunding platforms to support the child and organize the funeral. The first, published on “LaunchGood”, organized by the London Mosque and the National Council of Canadian Muslims, reached nearly 700,000 Canadian dollars (474,000 euros).
A second prize pool, organized by a relative of the family and relayed by the Muslims Association of the University of Western Ontario, counted more than 400,000 Canadian dollars on Tuesday afternoon.
