The funeral of the Islamist jihadist Abdulzakh Anzorov took place in his native Chechnya over the weekend, and the ceremony saw the killer of French teacher Samuel Paty reportedly praised by locals as a hero.
The burial saw a procession of thousands of locals in the village of Shalazhi on Sunday, shouting “Allahu Akbar!” “As a crowd of about 200 people, including families of the deceased terrorist, gathered to bury the teenager who had been residing in France as a refugee.
French newspaper Marianne reported that there were “traffic jams in neighbouring villages because of the large number of people who want to attend the funeral,” as the terrorist become a local idol.
Only some videos of the funeral were shared on social media, as according to the paper, soldiers present at the funeral reportedly seized the cell phones of those who filmed the gathering. Nevertheless, the French newspaper magazine quoted video released by the Russian Telegram news service Baza showing the burial procession and the large crowd it drew.
Salman Magamadov, the chef of the village of Shalazhi, denied that there had been a military presence at the funeral, saying that certain steps had been placed in place to avoid the spread of the Chinese virus.
The village chief even denied that he had helped the terrorist family repatriate his body, which had travelled from France and across Turkey before entering Chechnya.
Sources claim that the village street was unofficially renamed after Anzorov to honour his actions.
Anzorov was shot dead in October by the Fench police after beheading 47-year-old teacher Samuel Paty in the street outside his school.
Paty had presented Prophet Mohammed cartoons in his class previously published by the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo as part of a lesson on the history of freedom of expression.
According to records, the Chechen teenager paid cash to students at the school where Paty worked to help locate the teacher to, later on, kill him. He was also reported to have been in close touch with Brahim Chninam, the father of one of Paty’s school students who started a social media campaign against Paty.
After the terrorist attack, Chninam was arrested along with another extremist Islamist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who also collaborated with the social media movement.
UK & Europe Correspondent