Bandipora, June 04 (KNO): Keeping the age-old tradition of communal harmony and brother alive, Muslims Thursday performed the last rites of a Kashmiri Pandit woman who passed way this morning in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Amid the coronavirus lockdown, scores of Muslims including women assembled at village Kuloosa of Bandipora district to perform the last rites of KP woman Rani Bhat wife of Moti Lal Bhat. Witnesses said that Muslim women could be seen mourning the death as the deceased was close to them for years together.
Soon after the news of death spread in the village, Muslims made special arrangements to performing last rites of deceased. They also managed firewood for helping the KP family to cremate the deceased. "It is our duty to help neighbours irrespective of their religion," Abdul Rehman, a villager told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO)
He said that the KP woman passed away in the wee hours. “Keeping social distancing norms in mind, we visited the bereaved family one by one and expressed our condolences,” he said, adding that, “We have not helped them today. We have been helping them for centuries and they have been helped us too. We will always help them and always live with them and keep out age old tradition of communal harmony intact.”
In Kuloosa village of Bandipora, there are almost over a dozen KP families, who didn’t flee when majority of Pandit community members deserted Kashmir in 1990. Since then, the two communities are sharing a great bond of friendship and harmony.
Muslims of the area gathered in large numbers at the house of deceased amid social distancing and later helped the bereaved family to take the body of the deceased to the cremation ground for final rites. The locals of the village also prayed for the departed soul and expressed solidarity with the family members of deceased—(KNO)