SRINAGAR: For more than five decades, Muhammed Shafi Khan and Mumtaza Khan shared a life of faith, dignity, and quiet resilience. On Sunday, after over 50 years of marriage, they departed the world within hours of each other, a rare end to a lifetime of companionship.
Muhammed Shafi Khan, a retired general manager known in his Batamaloo neighbourhood as “Papa Ji.” All his life, he was known for his honesty. An Imam at the local mosque, he had been a man of strong faith and discipline. His wife, Mumtaza, had spent her life in education, serving as vice-principal at a Caset Experimental School in Karan Nagar, Srinagar. Those who knew them remember a couple deeply bound by respect and mutual care.
Mumtaza had long battled cancer. Doctors had given her a limited prognosis years ago. She endured the illness with quiet strength. A few days ago, her health declined after a stroke and haemorrhage. She was admitted to SMHS Hospital, where, despite intensive care, she passed away.
As her family prepared for her funeral, her husband’s condition began to deteriorate. Khan, who suffered from chronic kidney disease, had not been keeping well, though his decline was unexpected. “He had been emotionally attached to her beyond words,” a close relative recounted. “Even when she was in the hospital, his thoughts never left her.”
On Sunday morning, as preparations were being made for Mumtaza’s burial, family members noticed Muhammed Shafi Khan growing weak. “When we were giving her the funeral bath before burial, we realised he was not responding properly,” the relative said. He was rushed to a nearby hospital in Hyderpora, where doctors tried to resuscitate him, but he had already suffered a cardiac arrest. He was declared dead shortly after.
The couple’s funeral took place the same day, three hours apart. Mumtaza’s funeral prayers were held in Rawalpora in the morning, and by afternoon, Muhammed Shafi Khan’s funeral prayers were held in Batamaloo, two farewells for a pair who had lived as one.
“They were inseparable,” said the relative. “My aunt had once said she wasn’t worried about herself, but only about how her husband would cope after her. She was right, he didn’t survive even a few hours without her.”
In a time when life often pulls people apart, their story stands as a quiet reminder of devotion that endured illness, distance, and finally, death itself. “They were together in life,” their family said, “and Allah willed they remain together in death.”
