The founder of Algeria’s banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), Abassi Madani was buried on Saturday in Algiers in front of thousands of supporters after his death in Qatar where he had long lived in exile.

Madani’s body was carried from his family home to Ennadi Mosque where believers recited the Islamic funeral prayer, ahead of his transportation to a cemetery for final internment.

He had been living in Qatar since he fled to that country in 2003 after serving a 12-year prison sentence in Algeria for charges which predated it’s general election.

Many Algerians believe Madani was associated with the bloodletting which occurred during the civil war which pitted the country’s security forces against feuding Islamist armed groups.

He was imprisoned in 1991 and only called for an end to the violence in 1999, when his group said it was laying down its arms.