Flag raising and one minute silence

The Mayor Surinder Biant, Mayoress Cecile Biant, Leader of the Council Richard Farnell, councillors, representatives of various organisations, members of the Pakistani, Kashmiri and local communities joined together to observe one minute's silence for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussel, Lahore, Paris and all victims of terrorism.

Maulana Siddique Kausar recited verses of the holy Qur’an.

Ghulam Rasul Shahzad OBE, Chairman, welcomed everyone to the flag raising on Pakistan Resolution Day, 23 March. He said: “We the Muslim Pakistani/Kashmiri community, in Rochdale in particular and in the United Kingdom in general, strongly condemn the barbaric, inhumane terrorist attack on innocent people killing 38 people and injuring more than 150 people in Brussels, in Lahore Gulshan-e-Iqbal killing 72 and injuring more than 300 people, in Paris and other places. Our prayers and thoughts are with the victims and condolences to their families and friends.

"The holy Qur’an says, ‘If someone kills an innocent person it is as if he/she has killed the whole humanity and if someone saves a person it is as if he/she has saved the humanity’.

"These terrorists are not human beings, have no faith and community and respect for humanity and should be brought to justice as soon as possible.”

The Mayor said he had been attending the flag raising for the last 20-25 years and was attending this year as a First Citizen of the town.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Richard Farnell said that in Rochdale we live like one community. We celebrate the diversity and community cohesion in our town and are proud of our multifaith and multicultural town where all communities celebrate their festivals and national days.