Maulana Tariq Jamil leads son’s funeral prayer as Asim laid to rest in Talamba

Renowned scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil led the funeral prayers of his son Asim Jamil as the deceased was laid to rest within a mosque’s premises in his native town of Talamba on Monday.

The deceased, a long-time psychiatric patient, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday.

“The grief of the death of a young son is known only to those [loved ones] grieving,” Maulana Tariq said while addressing the funeral procession.

“This wound will not heal soon,” he added.

In a statement, Multan’s Regional Police Officer (RPO) Captain (retd) Sohail Chaudhry said: “The DPO [district police officer] has seen a CCTV footage that shows Asim Jamil committing suicide.”

The police officer further said that Asim was a psychiatric patient and had been under medication for many years and took his own life with a 30-bore pistol.

Later, Yousaf Jamil, the elder son of Maulana Tariq, revealed that his younger brother was undergoing Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) for his illness as he was suffering from severe depression since childhood with his condition deteriorating in the past six months.

Asim was alone at home and he shot himself with a security guard’s weapon as he “could not bear the pain and suffering”, he said.

Following the incident, politicians including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, the party’s Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz, and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani offered condolences to the eminent scholar over his son’s untimely demise.