17-year-old hijab clad teen kidnapped outside mosque, found brutally murdered
- Muslim teenager was kidnapped outside US mosque, found dead inside a pond
- Nabra Hassanen was on her way to home with her friends, after finishing her ramadan prayers
- The incident is suspected to be a hate crime
- 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, was arrested by the US police patrol
FollowA 17-year-old girl, who allegedly was kidnapped outside a US mosque, was later found brutally murdered. Her body was recovered from a pond. A suspect has been apprehended by the local police.
It is suspected to be a hate crime, however, there is no official word on it yet. The incident took place outside the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) mosque.
The teenager was on her way home, along with four or five of her friends who had attended the early prayers on Sunday.
The victim - Nabra Hassanen - along with her friends was walking out of the mosque at around 3:30 am after grabbing their breakfast for Ramadan. It is reported that the victim and her friends got into an argument with a driver, who then attacked the group with a baseball bat.
The other friends fled the scene, however, Nabra, it is suspected was kidnapped by the driver, who allegedly killed her and threw her body into a pond.
According to Washington Post, Shoyeb Hassan, the co-chair of ADAMS, said that during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the mosque has additional prayers at midnight and 2 a.m., and members frequently go to McDonald’s or the 24-hour IHOP restaurant, to eat before they start their fast at sunrise, as Nabra and her friends were doing.
A close friend of the victim in a Facebook post said that a motorist, who they had got into an argument swung at the girls with a baseball bat. He then presumably kidnapped the girl who was later found dead in a pond nearby.
A massive search was launched by the Virginia police, who even deployed an aerial search. During the search, a police patrol noticed a suspicious vehicle and detained 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres.
The teenage girl was wearing a burqa – a full-length black dress typically worn by Muslim women. Nabra’s mother, Sawsan Gazzar, told The Guardian: “I think it had to do with the way she was dressed and the fact that she’s Muslim. Why would you kill a kid? What did my daughter do to deserve this?”
The incident has shocked the local Muslim community, who are in a panic state, the reports said.
