A Muslim family unable to use the cemetery for burial of a man who died of kidney failure

Dhangadhi : The cemetery for the Muslim community living in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan city is situated in ward no.1. While, yesterday the local residents of ward no 1 locked the cemetery and carried out protests opposing the burial of a 57-year-old Muslim woman who died of Coronavirus. The locals locked the cemetery and protested by burning tires against the burial of the corpse in a graveyard situated near human settlement.

A 57-year-old woman of Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City Ward No. 2 died at the Seti Provincial Hospital on Thursday morning. Hospital’s information officer Dilip Kumar Shrestha said that she was admitted to the hospital on September 26 after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia. She tested positive for Coronavirus on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Mayor Nirpa Bahadur Odd of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan city said that the administration and the Nepal Army did not coordinate while managing the corpse. However, it is inappropriate to remove the buried corpse, he said. Mayor Odd also ensured his involvement in the management of corpses in the near future by specifying a certain place for the burial of bodies infected with Coronavirus.

 While, Chief District Officer of Kailali, Yagya Raj Bohara, said that the deceased was buried in the cemetery of ward no. 1 due to lack of space. "We tried to make arrangements in various places for her burial like community forests. However, people everywhere refrained from letting us use those areas. Eventually people from the Muslim community opted to bury the body in their cemetery and we agreed to it.”  However, the local administration has failed to unlock the cemetery for other bodies to be buried.

The family members of Mohammad Jamshed, 50, of Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolis-1, who died of kidney failure on Friday morning, have expressed grief regarding this problem. “According to our rites, the body should be buried in the cemetery,” said Saddam Jamshed, the deceased's son. But we have not been able to perform the funeral due to yesterday's incident. “We have kept the body at home since morning.”

“We demand the local administration to unlock the cemetery and help us perform the rites without disruption.” The Chief District Officer of Kailali, Yagya Raj Bohara, said that discussions are on-going between the Muslim community and the party that locked the cemetery in order to manage the deceased’s body there. However, the Kailali administration has been unable to find a solution to the problem.