Murdered Chaguanas businessman remembered as hero, martyr

Murdered Chaguanas businessman Rishard Ali was remembered as a hero, martyr and friend by relatives and friends at his funeral on Saturday.

These were some of the tributes paid to Ali, 48, during his funeral at his family's home at Biljah Road Extension, Chaguanas.

But the most moving of those tributes came from Ali's daughter, Raeesa, who promised to spend the rest of her life making him proud of her.

Ali was murdered not far from his home on April 12, during what police believe was a botched carjacking.

Before the start of the service at noon, hundreds of people gathered at Ali's home to pay their last respects. Several of them wept openly, crying out his name as they looked at his body in the open casket.

"Rishard! Rishard!"

Raeesa sat on her mother Resha's lap with her brother Raed next to them as she read her tribute.

"I can confidently say he was friends with half of the country."

Ali was the best father any child could ask for, she said.

"He always made sure we had the best of the best, because he always said he never wanted us to face what he had to."

Raeesa said she and her brother were proud of their father, who emerged from humble beginnings to become a respected businessman and member of his community.

"He is our hero. He is our idol. There is no one we look up to more than we do him."

"He made himself into somebody and for that I am endlessly proud (of him)."

She said her father used a lot of his personal wealth to help people who were less fortunate.

"Words can never explain the love we have for him and the bond we shared."

She described her father as fearless and outgoing, with a wholesome personality.

"He lived his life to the absolute fullest and I know he enjoyed whatever time he spent here."

Holding back her tears as she looked at her father, Raeesa said, "My motive in this life, from this moment, is to make you proud and that is a promise I make to you."

She advised those gathered to pay their last respects to Ali to live their lives to the fullest like he did.

"Life is too short and unpredictable to not do so, and we have seen that here today."

"He left great footprints on this Earth and he will always be remembered as an honest and honourable man."

Iman Sharal Khan said many people who wake up every morning in TT are not sure they will be alive at the end of the day.

He urged mourners to live lives that were pleasing to God.

"Look at the situation here. We feel the pain and we see the pain in the faces of each other."

Khan told mourners that one day, they will be lying in a coffin with people mourning them.

He said Ali did the best he could to live a good life in God's eyes.

Khan recalled that Ali came to the masjid regularly.

"This is the month of Ramadan, the month of blessings."

Khan said it was significant that Ali died during Ramadan.

"This month is very blessed. So much mercy is being emanated in this month.

"There are many. many narrations that tell us that a person who dies in the way of Allah, fighting for the protection of his family and his property...would have died as a martyr.

"When you die in the month of Ramadan, you are destined for Jannah."

In Islam, Jannah is the Arabic term for the final abode of the righteous, or paradise.

Among the mourners were Chaguanas mayor Faaiq Mohammed and Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein.

Mohammed declined an invitation by Khan to address the gathering. Khan told mourners Mohammed was overwhelmed with emotion over Ali's death and could not speak.

Members of the Making Memories Bikers Crew escorted the hearse to Waterloo Cemetery for burial.

Ali's motorcycle was strapped on to the back of a wrecker truck in the funeral procession.