CALGARY – A Calgarian has been identified as one of two Canadians killed in an attack on a hotel in Afghanistan’s capital.
Sources say the gunmen waited three hours until the restaurant in the Serena Hotel in Kabul was full before the attack.
Officials say a total of four foreigners were among the nine people who died in the attack, including two children who were shot in the head.
Zeenab Kassam, a nurse from Calgary, has been identified as one of the victims.
Her family said she was volunteering as an English teacher in Afghanistan and had been in the country for a year and a half.
Vancouver’s Roshan Thomas has been identified as the second Canadian victim.
Kassam’s brother told Global Calgary that Kassam and Roshan were out for dinner at the hotel celebrating the vernal equinox.
“My sister was having dinner with another Canadian woman – a doctor – at a restaurant they thought was safe,” explains Karim-Aly Kassam.
“I wonder did she suffer? I hope there was someone there to hold her hand,” adds Kassam. “These are questions I want the answers to.”
The deaths have had a profound impact on Canadian organizations working to provide aid to Afghanistan.
“I personally had not met Zeenab, but I know her brother well, and I know their family is a wonderful committed family to peace and human rights,” explains Janice Eisenhauer from Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. “And that certainly came through with all the work that Zeenab had been doing in teaching in Afghanistan, and nursing as well.”
“[Zeenab was] a very brave and courageous woman to risk her life, and lose her life, for women and girls of Afghanistan,” adds Eisenhauer.
On Friday, the family released a statement saying they are “deeply touched and grateful for all the good wishes of Canadians on the passing of Zeenab Kassam in Afghanistan.”
The statement goes on to say the family will “soon be ready to share the inspiring and amazing story of her life,” but request privacy at this time so that they may grieve and “prepare for repatriating Zeenab’s remains from Kabul, Afghanistan, to her home in Calgary.”
The shooting rampage was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks as the Taliban and allied militants step up a campaign of violence in the weeks leading to April 5 national elections.
It’s the second time this year that Canadians have died in Kabul.
In January two Canadian accountants died in a Taliban suicide attack in Afghanistan.
Martin Glazer, of Gatineau, Que., and Peter McSheffrey, of Ottawa were among 21 people killed when a suicide bomber and two gunmen attacked a popular restaurant in the Afghan capital.
The two were in Afghanistan doing an audit for the Canadian International Development Agency.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
© Shaw Media, 2014
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