A remarkable picture of communal unity has emerged in the Kupwara area of Jammu and Kashmir at a time when the country is seeing confrontations and disputes over religion-related issues.
On Monday, several local Muslims assisted in the funeral rituals of a 70-year-old pandit woman in Lolab valley, Kupwara district, north Kashmir. Rita Kumari, a Kashmiri Pandit woman who lived in the Lalpurah neighbourhood of Lolab’s border town, died of age-related diseases. As word of her death spread, members of the local Muslim community came to her aid, joining the Pandit family in performing her last rites.
Her body was brought to the Crematory by a large number of local Muslims, who assisted her family in the Hindu custom of cremation. Rita’s family is the only Hindus in the neighbourhood. Since the 1990s, she has lived in the Lalpurah neighbourhood. She chose not to relocate when a huge number of Kashmiri Pandits evacuated the Valley at the outbreak of militancy in 1990, preferring instead to dwell among the Muslim population.
A local resident said, ‘We have not forgotten the days when we used to get involved in every sorrow of Kashmiri Hindus. The Muslims were always keen to participate in all the festivals that the Kashmir Pandits celebrated. While the Kashmiri Pandits, too participated in the festival and important days of Muslims here. The brotherhood of Hindus and Muslims was visible at all times. Muslims here are eagerly waiting for the return of Kashmiri Pandits’.
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