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Published On: Fri, May 10th, 2013

Tamerlan Tsarnaev finally buried in Virginia, locals ‘caught off guard’ and ‘total surprise’

The body of one of the two men accused of pulling off the Boston Marathon bombing has been buried in rural Virginia, a move that local officials said caught them totally “off guard.”

Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s remains were accepted “by an interfaith coalition in that community — they responded to our calls,” his uncle Ruslan Tsarni, of Maryland, told CNN. The body was buried in an unmarked grave in a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Virginia, according to Tsarni.

“My tradition was that of a Muslim, and I have that tradition of burial, and people helped me with that,” he said in a phone interview.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was possibly connected to the 2011 Waltham murders, police say

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was possibly connected to the 2011 Waltham murders, police say

“The body’s buried,” said the uncle. “That’s it.”

The death certificate released by Massachusetts authorities indicates that Tsarnaev, whose cause of death was listed as gunshot wounds and “blunt trauma to (his) head and torso,” was interred at Al-Barzakh Muslim Cemetery in Doswell, which is about 25 minutes north of Richmond in a rural county of about 30,000 people.

While the news came out Friday, Bukhari Abdel-Alim from the Islamic Funeral Services of Richmond said Tsarnaev was actually buried the previous morning.

Speaking Friday from the cemetery, which his organization owns, Abdel-Alim said there was “no intention to … make anybody angry,” but that he and others felt obligated to do what “God says to do” by putting Tsarnaev’s “body back into the earth.”

“It’s not a political thing (but) he can’t bury himself,” said Abdel-Alim, adding his only regret was that Tsarnaev “wasn’t buried sooner.” “…Whether he was Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, when you’re dead you need to be buried or taken care of, not just left in a funeral home.”

Police in Worcester, Massachusetts, had announced Thursday a “courageous and compassionate individual came forward” to take Tsarnaev’s remains out of Worcester, where the body had been at a funeral home while Tsarni and officials tried to determine what to do with it.

Imam Ammar Amonette, of the Islamic Center of Virginia, said that his group was never consulted and that Mullen reached out to a separate group, the Islamic Society of Greater Richmond.

“The whole Muslim community here is furious. Frankly, we are furious that we were never given any information. It was all done secretly behind our backs,” Amonette said, adding that it “makes no sense whatsoever” that Tsarnaev’s body was buried in Virginia.

“It was a total surprise and shock to us,” Amonette told CBS affiliate WTVR

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About the Author

- Roxanne "Butter" Bracco began with the Dispatch as Pittsburgh Correspondent, but will be providing reports and insights from Washington DC, Maryland and the surrounding region. Contact Roxie aka "Butter" at theglobaldispatch@gmail ATTN: Roxie or Butter Bracco

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