Manama: Tributes have poured in for Saudi civilians who died as they were about to confront the suicide bomber who blew himself up near a mosque in Saudi Arabia.
The bomber reportedly got off a car wearing an abaya, the black coverall traditionally worn by women in the Arabian Gulf states, and was heading towards Imam Hussain mosque in the Al Anood district of Dammam, the largest city in the Eastern Province, when security men and two civilians approached him.
He, however, opted to detonate the explosives he was concealing under the loose abaya, killing himself and three other people, including the two civilians, Abdul Jaleel Al Arbash and his cousin Mohammad Al Eisa.
A selfie taken by the two cousins reportedly minutes before the terror blast went viral on the internet as online users paid tribute to them for their courage and bravery and praised them from protecting their country and brothers from a deadly act of terrorism.
Abdul Jaleel’s mother, prominent columnist Kawthar Al Arbash, was reeling under the shock, but she nevertheless publicly saluted her son’s brave act.
“He made me cry, but he spared hundreds of mothers from the agony of crying over their sons,” she posted on her Twitter account.
According to reports, less than one day before the blast that killed her son and her nephew, Kawthar said that mutual acceptance was crucial to overcome extremism.
“We need to acknowledge the other and to believe in his right to exist and in his right to participate,” she said, referring to religious sects. “In a country where ideological, intellectual and regional pluralism has recently emerged, we need to feel for the others so that we can all live together,” Kawthar said.
Reports said that Abdul Jaleel, a student in electrical engineering at Wichita State University in the US, got engaged a few days before he lost his life in the blast.
His university paid homage to the student who had just passed away.
“The Wichita State University community is saddened by the tragic death of one of our students,” the university said.
“I am not surprised that Abdul Jaleel did what he had to do to save the lives of all those people by giving up his own so readily,” the university quoted Preethika Kumar, undergraduate coordinator in electrical engineering and one of Al Arbash’s professors, as saying. “In my faith, when someone is able to love God so deeply to the extent of putting their neighbour before themselves always, even to the point of laying their life down, he or she is a saint.”
Kumar said she got to know Al Arbash well in the past semester while he was enrolled in one of her courses. She recalled he was a kind person who was always happy.
Several columnists on Saturday openly condemned the suicide attack and warned that its main purpose was to divide the nation along sectarian faults and weaken the state.
Witnesses reported that the bomber initially headed towards the women’s section of the mosque, but changed his plans after he found that the door was locked, local daily Okaz reported.
A neighbour said that a headless body had fallen into their courtyard following the explosion.
“We heard the loud sound and we came out of the room,” Umm Ahmad said. “We found the body and we started screaming. My husband and son were at the mosque at the time and we are thankful to God they were not harmed in the blast. The police came and did their work. We know that the body did not belong to the terrorist since his was found at the parking lot,” she said.
