Model family’ cut down on evening stroll

Model family’ cut down on evening stroll

LONDON, Canada: A mother who was a "brilliant scholar,“ a cricket-loving father with "a welcoming smile,“ a teenage daughter who was "a friend to many“; a doting grandmother: The victims of Sunday's truck-ramming attack in Canada, all Muslims with roots in Pakistan, were a "model family“, friends say. The attack, dubbed a "terrorist“ act by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, came out of the blue as the Afzaal family, taking one of the evening strolls they so loved, prepared to cross a street in the Ontario city of London.

The lives of three generations were snuffed out in a moment: Madiha Salman, age 44, who was doing postgraduate work in civil and environmental engineering; her 46-year-old husband, Salman Afzaal, who loved to greet people at the mosque; their 15-year-old daughter, Yumna Salman; and Afzaal's 74-year-old mother, who has not been named. The couple's son, nine-year-old Fayez, was instantly orphaned. He remains in hospital with serious injuries but is recovering, relatives said.

What had been an ordinary evening for the Afzaals was brutally cut short when a black pickup truck, driven by a 20-year-old suspect, took deliberate aim at them, jumping a curb and mowing them down. The attack, in this city of 500,000