New York (Web Desk): United Nations (UN) Secretary-GeneraI Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed his outrage over the “targeted” killing of a Pakistani-origin Muslim family in Canada and urged for united fight against Islamophobia.
In a post on Twitter, the UN chief wrote, “I am appalled by the targeted and heinous attack on a Muslim family in Ontario, Canada,” the UN chief wrote on the Twitter.
“My heart goes out to the victims, surviving family and loved ones – and the community,” he said.
The UN secretary-general called for united fight against Islamophobia and all forms of hatred.
On Sunday, a man ran a pickup truck over the family of five at a London intersection, killing four of them and wounding a boy.
The deceased include a 46-year-old man, his 44-year-old wife, a 15-year-old girl, and her 74-year-old grandmother. Their nine-year-old son is under treatment at a hospital for serious injuries.
The 20-year-old suspect, arrested shortly after the attack, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, while several leaders of the Muslim community have called on the courts to classify the episode as an act of terrorism.
Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that hate-motivated attack that killed four members of a Muslim family in the city of London, Ontario was a ‘terrorist attack’.
“This killing was no accident. This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities,” the Canadian PM said during a speech at the House of Commons.
Justin Trudeau said ‘the attack was not a one-off, citing numerous eruptions of anti-Muslim violence in recent years that have claimed lives, revealing a troubling streak of Islamophobia in Canada.
They were all targeted because of their Muslim faith. This is happening here, in Canada, and it has to stop’, he said.