A 32-year-old man who had admitted murdering a Ahmadiya Muslim shopkeeper for what he perceived as disrespect to Islam was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a United Kingdom court which described the incident as an appalling display of merciless violence.
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Tanveer Ahmed admitted stabbing and beating shopkeeper Asad Shah to death at his Glasgow convenience store in March. “Tanveer Ahmed has committed the gravest of crimes and he will now serve a very lengthy period in jail as a result of his actions”.
Tanveer Ahmed was sentenced to 27 years in jail at the High Court in Glasgow after admitting murdering Asad Shah.
Mr Shah was an Ahmadi, a minority sect not recognised by all Muslims.
The Shah family had moved from Pakistan to Scotland in the 1990s to escape anti-Ahmadi persecution and been granted asylum.
Ahmed’s lawyer said: “If I had not done this others would have and there would be more killings and violence in the world”. “But it was religiously motivated”.
Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said: “Asad Shah was a well-liked and respected member of the community who was savagely murdered by a total stranger”.
It also emerged in court that Ahmed, a cab driver, was in Glasgow a couple of days before the murder with a friend who knew Shah and who showed Ahmed Shah’s Facebook page.
He returned to Bradford, and decided to make the 200 mile drive back up to Glasgow. On the journey, he watched online footage of Mr Shah, the court heard. “It needs nipped in the bud”.
When he arrived at the shop, Ahmed said he warned the shopkeeper he was there to kill him and asked him to stop claiming to be a prophet. Ahmed and Shah started talking, before Ahmed pulled a knife from his robes and attacked Shah, stabbing him repeatedly.
His brother Athar Shah was unable to fend off the attacker who calmly walked to a nearby bus shelter where police found him.
Shop assistant Stephen McFadyen then grabbed it from the killer and put it in bushes out the way before Ahmed began punching, kicking and stamping with full force on Mr Shah. The assault was so severe he also suffered a fractured skull to an extent more often seen in victims of vehicle crashes. He made no attempt to resist arrest.
He later released a statement through his murder re-affirming his religous motivation for the attack.
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“Our pain goes beyond our vocabulary”, the statement said.
