Kasaragod: A Muslim woman panchayat member has performed the last rites of a Hindu man according to his customs in northern Kasaragod after his family declined to claim the body following his death from cancer, in an act that has drawn widespread appreciation on social media.
The deceased, Narayanan (64), a native of Chigrupadavu in Manjeswaram and a daily wage labourer, died at the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital on Thursday after undergoing treatment for advanced-stage cancer for nearly a month.
Upon his family members not being ready to claim his dead body, the cremation was done according to hindu rituals, under the leadership of Kasaragod district panchayat member from the Manjeshwar division and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Irfana Iqbal.
According to local reports, the deceased Narayanan was a former BJP and RSS activist, who was suffering from mouth cancer, and his family had abandoned him.
Speaking to PTI, Irfana Iqbal, also the development chairperson of the Kasaragod district panchayat, said Narayanan was found in a weak and starving condition on the veranda of a shop in Chigrupadavu of Kasaragod, about a month ago.
She said the matter was brought to her attention by a ward member. Based on that, she informed the District Collector and the District Medical Officer and, with the help of volunteers of a local charitable foundation, shifted him to the hospital after providing him with primary care.
“We had initially planned to shift him to the trust-run old age home. But his health was very serious, and he was diagnosed with fourth-stage cancer. So we admitted him to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital,” she said.
After Narayanan died, the local police informed his relatives, but they were unwilling to claim the body, she said. They, however, authorised Iqbal to receive the body and perform the funeral rites.
“We received the body and conducted the final rites at a Hindu crematorium here as per his religious beliefs,” she said. Iqbal herself led the last rites at a Hindu public crematorium in Uppala.
The visuals of the purdah-clad panchayat member performing the Hindu funeral rituals soon went viral on social media.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Iqbal said, “No close relative came. I performed Narayanettan’s last rites as a daughter. Humanity is above religion and politics.”
She said she hoped to continue extending support to more abandoned elderly people.
Iqbal also said there was no objection from her community as they used to conduct the last rites of orphaned inmates of the charitable foundation according to their respective faiths.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
