Afaq Bhat
Srinagar, June 10: As the COVID-19 casualties in Jammu and Kashmir have surpassed 50-mark disturbing reports about people objecting to the burial of dead in local graveyards have created ripples in the Valley.
On Tuesday, Kashmir’s Grand Mufti, Nasir-ul-Azam, issued a strong worded statement asking people to give dignified burial to the dead. “Disallowing burial of COVID-19 victims is un-Islamic. People have to take preventive measures to bury a dead body. Like he or she is not given ablution and is wrapped in a cloth. But does Islam say we should not allow burial of these people? No. Doing such acts is un-Islamic,” Nasir-ul-Islam told a local news agency.
An analyst while talking to Precious Kashmir said, ““People who are disrupting the last rites of the people should bear in mind that they too can get infected due to the COVID-19 and die. This is a pandemic and anyone can get infected. The ones who are dying due to the COVID-19 were not born with it. They caught the virus and didn’t survive. They cannot be blamed for it. Nor can they be denied a decent burial. Not allowing last rites of the COVID-19 victims is being inhuman.”
It’s in place to mention here that doctors and experts have made it clear again and again that virus dies after the person succumbs but precautions have to be taken to ensure that people handling the dead body don’t get infected.
According to the media reports earlier this week locals in one of the areas objected to the burial of COVID-19 victim in a local graveyard. Following which an NGO intervened and performed the last rites of the victim. But the NGO members had to face tough time while convincing the people to let them complete the last rites.
President of Doctors Association of Kashmir Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan said, “There is no evidence of a person being infected from the exposure to corpse who died from coronavirus. The main driver of transmission of COVID-19 is through respiratory droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes. There is no chance of spread of infection from a dead person. The dead person won’t cough or sneeze. The virus doesn’t survive in the human body after death.”
An observer said, “Its unfortunate that the dead are being dishonoured. People dying of COVID-19 are victims and they should not be treated as untouchables. All of us should remember that everyone has to die and we should not object to the last rites of any person. The least we can do for the COVID-19 victims is that we can provide them with a dignified burial.”
