Muslim villagers mourn death of Pandit fellow in Pulwama

PULWAMA — Muslim population in south Kashmir’s Pulwama village mourned the death of a septuagenarian Kashmiri Pandit and carried his bier along with his relatives for the cremation.

Local sources told the news agency KNT that 70-year-old Kashmiri Pandit Pyare Lal breathed his last at his native village. The news spread quickly at Batapora Wahibugh village of Newa and local Muslims thronged the house of the deceased and arranged everything required for the last rites.

They said the deceased along with some of his family members stayed back when the majority of the Pandits migrated to Jammu in the early 1990s.

“Everyone in the hamlet knew him. He was gentle and friendly, commanding respect from the local Muslim population. Villagers mourned his death and expressed sympathies with the bereaved family members,” said a local Muhammad Asif.

Since the migration of the Pandits, local Muslims have always helped in performing the last rites of those Pandits who passed away in Kashmir Valley.