A Muslim woman panchayat member performed the last rites of a Hindu man according to his customs in North Kasaragod after his family refused to claim the body after he died of cancer.
The woman’s gesture was widely praised on social media.
The deceased Narayanan (64), a native of Chigrupadavu in Manjeswaram, died at Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode on Thursday after undergoing treatment for advanced stage cancer for about a month.
Speaking to PTI, Kasaragod district development chief Irfana Iqbal said Narayanan was found in a weak and hungry condition on the terrace of a shop here about a month ago.
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She said the matter had been brought to her attention by a ward member. Accordingly, I informed the district collector and the district medical officer. It also arranged to provide him with primary care and transport him to the hospital with the help of volunteers from a charitable organization.
“We initially planned to shift him to the nursing home run by the trust. But his health condition was very serious and he was diagnosed with stage-four cancer. So we admitted him to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital,” she said.
She added that after Narayanan’s death, the local police informed his relatives, but they did not want to receive the body. But they allowed Iqbal to receive the body and perform the funeral rites.
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“We received the body and performed the final rites at a Hindu crematorium here as per his religious beliefs,” she said. Iqbal herself led the last rites at the public Hindu crematorium in Uppala.
Pictures of the hijab-wearing panchayat member performing Hindu funeral rituals quickly went viral on social media.
“None of my relatives came. I performed Narayanitan’s last rites when I was my daughter. Humanity is above religion and politics,” Iqbal said in a Facebook post on Friday. She said she hopes to continue providing support to more abandoned seniors.
Iqbal also said that there was no objection from her community as they used to conduct the last rites of the orphaned inmates at the charity according to their religions.
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Meanwhile, Congress leader and Kasaragod Lok Sabha MP Rajmohan Unnithan, in a Facebook post, described Iqbal as a “symbol of a new era in public service and a source of hope”.
She described her work as opening a “shop of love in a market of hate,” and Unnithan congratulated her on the gesture.
