Christchurch mosque shootings: Honouring the dead - Ashraf Ali, 58

It was the Fijian rugby jersey that made Ashraf Ali stand out.

Ramzan Ali was scanning the grainy footage taken from inside the Masjid Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, looking for a glimpse of his younger brother.

He saw a grey-haired man lying prone on a pile of dead bodies, wearing the black and white rugby jersey of his home country.

"That's him," Ramzam said. "Straight away I knew. Ninety five per cent, I was certain [he was dead].

"Five per cent in me was saying he could have survived."

Ashraf, 58, died in the mosque along with 40 others, slain by a white supremacist gunman.

The businessman, from Suva, had only arrived in the country six days earlier. It was one of his yearly visits to see his older brother, who works as a halal food inspector in Christchurch.

The brothers, two of nine children, had headed to the mosque on the edge of Hagley Park for Friday prayers. Ashraf sat on the ground in front of Ramzan, who had to rest on a bench at the back of the room because of a sore hip.

When the gunman came into the mosque with guns blazing, Ramzan hid behind the bench then later escaped out a window. People were gunned down right next to him, and he believed he was the last person to get out of the mosque alive.

Fijian businessman Ashraf Ali was killed in Friday's mosque attack after he flew into Christchurch last week for his yearly visit to see his brother. Photo / Supplied

Ashraf was more exposed to the gunman's fire.

Once outside the mosque, Ramzan desperately searched for news of Ashraf, the little brother who he had grown up with in Suva.

Photographs taken immediately after the shooting show Ramzan on his mobile phone in Hagley Park, with dots of blood on his shirt. He told the Herald at the time he was not sure whether Ashraf had survived.

It was not until he watched the livestream footage - taken by the gunman and used in an Australian news report - that Ashraf's death was confirmed.

Four days on, Ashraf's body has not been released to the family. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that all bodies will be returned to families by Wednesday at the latest.

Ashraf was the youngest of nine children in the Ali family. His second wife had died just three months ago, and his first wife died three years ago. He had a daughter in Melbourne.

The owner of a taxi company, Ramzan described him as a brilliant entrepreneur and a "jack of all trades".

"It he wanted to do something he would just do it. He won't even think twice. And he was always successful."

Ashraf was a talented footballer, known for his size and speed, which earned the name The Bulldozer.

"He will always be with me," said Ramzan. "I will never be able to forget him."