Masihuzzama Ansari & Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI, MARCH 29–The scare of coronavirus has not only forced people to remain indoors and maintain social distancing, the people are even avoiding to attend the burial rites of their near and dear ones even if the dead person had no corona infection.
Speaking to India Tomorrow, Mufti Abdul Raziq, in-charge of Shaheen Bagh burial ground said that before the coronavirus panic that began with ‘ Janata Curfew’ on March 22, around 100 to 200 people came with each body for burial.
However, the number of people coming with the bodies have now gone down to 10 to 15 only, though the police allows minimum of 20 persons to attend the funeral rites rites in the graveyard.
Mufti Raziq said that earlier, even the local residents also joined the burial rites in view of the religious significance of attending such a rite. ” But none of the locals are joining the funeral now, perhaps owing to corona scare”, said Mufti Raziq.
The Mufti said that the Islamic law allowed people to avoid large gatherings even in burial caeses if there was a fear of contacting infectious diseases and then spreading it to other people.
“But none of the 21 bodies buried in Shaheen Bagh graveyard since March 21 till now, had history of Corona. Yet, hardly 10 to 15 persons came with these bodies to the cemetery and left immediately after completing the burial rites”, said the Mufti.
The maximum number of four bodies for burial came on Thursday.
On Saturday, the cemetery received the body of 64-year-old Yemeni national who was undergoing treatment for some liver diseases in Apollo Hospital.
“His relatives performed ‘namaz-e-janaza'(funeral prayer) inside the hospital itself, before bringing it for burying it in the Shaheen Bagh graveyard”, the Mufti said.
“The body of Yemeni national was accompanied by four persons, the ambulance driver and three of his relatives wearing protective gears from head to toe though I was told that the man was not corona patient”, said the Mufti. This could be seen in the video.
He said that the Yemeni national’s body was buried here because his body could not be taken to his native place due to cancellation of all international and domestic flights.
The Mufti said that people were also not attending the mourning at the residences of such people owing to the fear of the coronavirus. “The coronavirus infection seems to have changed everything from funeral rites to mourning and grief”, observed the Mufti.
