Srinagar
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in a great show of communal harmony, sympathy and care, Kashmiri Muslims performed the last rites of a Pandit Hindu man in a south Kashmir village.
Chaman Lal, 70, never migrated from Kashmir and preferred to live in his native village, Tahab in Pulwama, and used to spend his time in the company of his Muslim friends.
Chaman Lal and his brother did not leave Tahab in 1990s when majority of the Pandits in his village and other areas of the Kashmir Valley migrated to Jammu and other places.
The local Muslims organised and performed his last rites and mourned his death as one of their own. Amid COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of Muslim villagers participated in his cremation.
The brother of the deceased Pandit said that local Muslims shouldered his coffin and arranged wood for his cremation.
The sons and daughter of the deceased Pandit arrived in the village from Jammu and thanked the Muslims for showing so much love and care.
“He was one among us. We arranged everything needed for the cremation,” Muhammad Sultan, an elderly man said.
“We have shared joys and sorrows with him and we feel like our own family member has passed away.”—KMS
