Muslim youths help cremate Hindu woman

Puttur: A group of Muslim youths assisted in conducting the final rites of a Hindu woman, after her own relatives and the locals refused to perform the funeral rituals.

The deceased Hindu woman has been identified as Bhavani (52), a spinster and a resident of Janavasati Colony at Vidyapura, who died of cardiac arrest early on Saturday June 16^th. Krishna, the relative of the deceased appealed to his relatives and the locals to help him conduct the last rites of his sister but none of them came forward to help him. Hence the mortal remains of the deceased women remained at home even up till the afternoon.

Vidyapura residents Shaukath, hamza, Nazeer, Riyaz and Farooq heard about Krishna’s plight and at once swung into action and collected funds to pay the crematorium and thus facilitate Bhavani’s final rites. Also, Anganwadi teacher Rajeshwari, and locals Safia and Zubaida volunteered to bathe the body before the rites since the relatives and the locals refused to do it.

Later, the youths shifted the mortal remains to the cremation fround at Puttur via an ambulance. The funeral rights were finally conducted after the group paid Rs 3,500 to the officials concerned.

Farooq, member of the group spoke to reporters and said, “We have facilitated Bhavani’s funeral without considering caste or religion. We did not do it for publicity. All we want is that such incidents where a person is denied last rites should never happen again. We had heard of such incidents being reported in places like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, but it is unfortunate that a tragedy like this has happened in our own village. Our intention is to give a message to the society that it should never occur again.”

“It is lamentable that the final rites were not conducted by those who were responsible for it. There are Hindutva outfits here, but those who claim to protect the interests of their community were not available when their own people needed them. Even the president of Kabaka panchayat who is from BJP did not visit Bhavani’s home. This is sad,” he added.