Amjad Sabri: Funeral of murdered Pakistani qawwali singer attended by thousands

Thousands have attended the funeral of Pakistani singer Amjad Sabri, who was shot dead in the southern city of Karachi in an attack claimed by a faction of the Taliban.

Large crowds gathered for the funeral procession and burial of the singer on 23 June, throwing flowers over an ambulance bearing his coffin, local media reported.

Sabri was famed for his renditions of Sufi devotional songs, or qawwali. In recent years the Sufi, who practice a mystical and contemplative form of Islam, have been subjected to attacks by Sunni extremists.

The singer will be laid to rest in Paposhnagar Graveyard alongside his father, Ghulam Farid Sabri, a fellow qawwali legend.

Sabri was shot dead by gunmen while in his car in the Liaquatabad Road area of the city on 22 June.

"Two riders used 30-bore pistols to shoot Sabri five times. The bullet to the head took the qawwal's life. The attackers took the Hassan Square route to escape," inspector general Mushtaq Mehar told Pakistan's English-language newspaper Dawn. Sabri's brother was also injured in the attack.

His murder was met with shock and anger throughout Pakistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged a full investigation to find the killers.

A splinter group of the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the killing, saying Sabri's qawwalis were blasphemous.

Fakhre Alam, the chairman of the Sindh Board of Film Censors, claimed that Sabri applied for security, which was denied by the home department. The BBC reports that a blasphemy suit was filed against Sabri after he mentioned members of the Prophet Mohammed's family in a song, which is considered blasphemous by Muslim hardliners.