The Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice for 2016 has been awarded to one of the three Bangladeshi hostages, Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, who killed in the terrorist attack on the Holey Cafe in Gulshan diplomatic zone in Dhaka on July 1.

The Harmony Foundation in Mumbai conferred the award to Hossain posthumously at a ceremony from the Foundation’s President Abraham Mathai. The award was received by Faraaz’s parents on his behalf.

The Foundation said while delivering the award, that, it “considers it its most humble privilege to posthumously honour Faaraz Ayaaz Hossain, amongst others, the brave Bangladeshi youth who was killed in the Dhaka terror attack on July 1, 2016 for refusing to leave behind his friends who were from other countries, choosing instead to stand against terror and oppression, ultimately paying the highest price and laying his life down for his friends.”

Faraaz’s mother Simeen Hossain said that, “Those who have killed my son were devils, terrorists. And my son, who stood by his friends defying death, represented true Islam.”

“Faraaz was a great human, a brave man. We are proud to have honoured him (Faraaz)”, Harmony Foundation president Abraham Mathai said.
The other recipients of the award includes Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan, Nobel laureate Dalai Lama, former Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir Mohammed and  Baroness Caroline Cox.

Faraaz was a student at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta. He had come to Dhaka to spend his summer vacations and was scheduled to return to the United States in the end of August.

Nandini