SAJJAD Mahmood was a hard-working teenager with everything to live for, his distraught mother said today.

One of the family's proudest moments was when Sajjad, 18, a former student at Accrington and Rossendale College, received an award from Hyndburn MP Greg Pope for his outstanding study work in communications and computers.

The family's grief was made worse by the fact that his body remained unburied for at least nine days following his death. Muslims believe a dead person's soul is in pain until they are buried, a fact which Mrs Mahmood believes the police did not fully understand.

Mrs Mahmood, formerly of Royds Street, Accrington, said: "It is very important that we as Muslims bury somebody immediately after they die. That is because we believe the person is constantly in pain until they are buried. My son was lying in that lake for nine or 10 days. It is a violation of someone' rights if they are not buried - it is disrespect. When his body was found, we could not show him to relatives and friends because of the state he was in after being in the lake.

"His grandparents hadn't seen him for seven years and we couldn't show them his face."

The former Moorhead High pupil was due to marry the month after his death and had taken a job at a supermarket to save for the wedding and support his family.

Mrs Mahmood said: "Sajjad was everything to us. He was the first-born. He had everything to live for. He worked hard and he was putting money into my account to look after the family.

Sajjad was an ordinary youngster from a respectable family. He had smoked cannabis but was not known to the police.

Sajjad's father, Arshad Mahmood, said: "Sajjad was like any teenager and he occasionally did get into trouble. But he was a good, kind person and he did not deserve to die."

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