Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): Upholding the age-old tradition of communal harmony in the Kashmir valley, local Muslims helped in the last rites of a Kashmiri Pandit, who died in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, on Tuesday, local sources said. Once again, the centuries-old Hindu-Muslim brotherhood was witnessed when the last rites of a Kashmiri Pandit were performed by local Muslims in Tankipora area of Srinagar.
Kashmiri Pandit Sohanlal, a local resident of Tankipora, Srinagar, passed away on the intervening night of Jan 29 and 30. As the local Muslims came to know about the death of their Kashmiri Pandit neighbour, they rushed to the spot and swung into action. Besides expressing condolence with the bereaved family, the local Muslims, fulfilling the right to be their neighbours, by helping in the last rites of the deceased.
Beside the family and relatives of the deceased Sohanlal, a big number of local Muslims were present at the funeral as the Kashmiri Pandit was cremated at the local cremation ground. On this occasion, the local Muslims bade farewell to their Kashmiri Pandit neighbor with tearful eyes. The locals said that Sohanlal was a gentle and amiable person who used to help his neighbors all the time. The locals said that Sohan Lal would stand by their side both during sorrow and happiness and they had developed a special bond with him over the years.
“We often used to visit each other even during religious festivals,” a local said. Significantly, the deceased was one among the few Kashmiri Pandits who did not leave their homes even during the peak of militancy which saw a mass migration of the minority community from the valley to outside. The deceased spent his entire life in his own native area and his own Muslim neighbors, who are saddened today by his death.
