Thousands at US soldier funeral
Hatim Kathiria’s coffin in Gujarat
Thousands threw flowers and sang Islamic hymns
Thousands of mourners have attended the funeral in India’s Gujarat state of an Indian-born US soldier killed in Iraq.
Hatim Kathiria, a 23-year-old Muslim, who died in a rocket attack in Baghdad on 22 August, was buried in his home town of Dahod.
He went to the US in 2003 and joined the army the next year.
His mother, Shirin, said: “He was my only son. His ambitions took him to the US and then to Iraq. We lost him, but he died a martyr’s death.”
Second death
Crowds threw flowers and sang Islamic hymns on the streets of the Muslim-dominated town.
Michael Owen, US consul general in Mumbai (Bombay), who attended the funeral, said: “His services have been recognised by the US armed forces and the family will be provided support.”
Mr Kathiria’s father, Siraj, said: "I have no regrets of my son joining the US army.
“He planned to work as a soldier for four years and then get back to academics. The Almighty had other plans.”
Mr Kathiria is the second Indian-born soldier killed in Iraq.
Sergeant Uday Singh from Punjab state was killed by insurgents in Baghdad last December.
a martyr?? that is just funny. a muslim joins a kafir army in occupying a muslim country and killing muslims, and when he dies helping those occupational soldiers, he is a martyr? heaven must be private propety of muslims.
Hold on so this guy went to Iraq shooting at iraqis and hes called a martyr hmmmm don't think so.
Hes dad can be proud if he wants to but allah(swt) is the judge and in the koran it is clear what is defintinition of a martyr and the one joining the occupying forces fighting the mujahideen is called in simple terms a traitor!
After watching the so called `enemy beheadings' by Islamic terrorists in Iraq on a particular website ,my muslim friends have started calling them thugs and basta4ds. :).
This guy had some objective in his mind and though we can not call him a martyr,he is certainly a brave guy.
the interesting thing is he joined the U.S army in 2004 ,that too after just one year he arrived in there.Is it that easy to get in to U.S force?or he went to Iraq as a mercenary to fight the insurgents,under some private companies who supply men for fighting to allied forces in Iraq?
enemy beheadings so u know who did those beheadings huh funny that they had masks on at the time so how do you know they where islamic??? because cnn said so is that right!
As long as some of them were murdered in day broad light(as videos suggest,and pople were watching those killings callously)their murderers would be connected to Iraqi people and obviously they are mulsims also.
I dont know whats the big deal slapping a "shaheed" or a martyr in front of a dead person. After all, almost everyone that dies in a car accident in Pakistan is referred to as a shaheed. "Shaheed" word has been mis-used so many times that it wouldnt make one bit of a difference, whose side he was on when he died. I am glad he died fighting the terrorists and not the other way around. God bless his soul.
//enemy beheadings so u know who did those beheadings huh funny that they had masks on at the time so how do you know they where islamic????? because cnn said so is that right!//
In which world do you live in. When such incidents occur u r the first to jump on the bandwagon and scream "Root causes". Now why the denial
