by Tahir Bhat
SRINAGAR: At the peak of the communication halt, a Punjab skilled worker fell ill and died in Ganderbal. After efforts to transport his corpse to home failed, the residents managed his last rites, delayed reports from Ganderbal said.
“Ranveer Singh was of around 32 years of age and has been working in our locality for around 10 years,” a resident said on phone. “During this crisis, he fell ill and was hospitalised by his colleagues including some of his cousins.”
The resident said that the locality financially also help him and his colleagues. “But he died in the hospital on May 6,” the resident said. “His colleagues contacted his family and initially both sides were desperate to take his body home for the last rites. The situation was also very bad so the family finally permitted that his last rites may be done in Ganderbal.”
It was after the necessary permission by the family in Gurdaspur that his colleagues were joined by the locals of Wakura that Singh’s last rites were managed. The residents said that the officials were aware of the entire development.
A short video that the locals recorded shows the residents mourning the young man’s death. It shows the local youth in protective gear and covering their faces with face masks performing the last rites.
https://www.facebook.com/KashmirLife/videos/585440718842517/
“I have been working here for 20 years and the residents did everything they could to help me after one of my brothers died,” one of the dead man’s relatives is saying in the video. On video a resident is saying after they could not manage his body’s transportation, they decided to have his last rites in the village. “We being Muslims do not know much about the last rites but we have gone by what they suggested us and what the local Kashmir Pandits suggested.”
The residents said Singh was known to the entire locality. “He was living with one relative in a rented space and another group also having some of his relatives were putting up at another place.”
His relatives suggested how the last rites were to be performed and the residents ensured they do not face any issue in that. Locals took out the body from the hospital, drove it to the village and eventually took him to the pyre. “We shouldered his coffin and arranged wood for his cremation,” locals said.
Residents said that Singh is survived by three minor kids and a wife.
