Riot murder victim's wife gives birth to a baby boy

Jan 29 2012 by Anuji Varma, Sunday Mercury

HE is the image of his father, bringing a ray of hope to a family devastated by the Birmingham riot murders.

As widow Khansa Ali looks into her newborn son’s eyes, there is a look of love in a face more used to grief since the death of her husband.

Shahzad Ali, 30, was one of the three men who died as they defended their Winson Green community at the height of last year’s riots.

Khansa, 22, had the baby, who has not yet been named, at Birmingham’s City Hospital last Sunday,

The birth is a bittersweet arrival for the family, following the murder of Shahzad, brother Abdul Musavir, 31, and pal Haroon Jahan, 21, during the riots on August 10.

Khansa was four months pregnant at the time.

Shahzad would have celebrated his 31st birthday yesterday and hoped his baby would be born on the same date as him.

Khansa, who married Shahzad in August 2010 in Pakistan in a traditional Muslim wedding, said: “My little boy is a piece of Shahzad. He looks just like his dad, but also has Musavir’s smile.

“When they died I was so devastated. I had lost my husband and brother-in-law. I felt there was no point in living.

“But now I feel different. I have something to look forward to. Now I really have something to live for, although I still feel incredibly sad that Shahzad isn’t here now. If he were still alive, he would have been telling the whole world the news and showing off his little boy.”

Khansa said her beloved husband, who ran a car valeting business, had dreamed of becoming a father and she was devastated that he would never get to meet the son he so desperately wanted.

“He told me that he wanted our first child to be a boy,” said Khansa.