Muslim youths help man cremate mother’s body

Malda

: Four

Muslim

youths came forward to help cremate the body of an 80-year-old woman who passed away at

Nayabazar

in

Panchanandapur

here on Friday morning.

Anjali Saha

, who had been suffering from various age-induced ailments, breathed her last around 11am. Bereaved son Ratan couldn’t find anyone to take his mother’s body to the crematorium. Being the only

Hindu

family in the area, they had no relatives nearby either.

Help came from unexpected quarters when local panchayat member Daud Islam, along with Sajjad Sk, Asgar Ali and Rabiul Islam, offered to make all preparations for the

cremation

. They made the macha (a bamboo bed), decorated it and carried the body to the banks of Ganga.

“These youths blurred barriers of religion to stand beside us in the time of grief,” Ratan said. Mourning women of the Saha family said they too would never forget how their Muslim neighbours took care of their children in trying times. Daud said they did what their conscience told them to do. “We have lived here together for many years. It is a common practice to stand beside neighbours in the time of crisis. What we did today was nothing extraordinary,” he added.

Asgar and Rabiul chorused that religion should never come in the way of helping those in need. “In fact, religion teaches us to help others. It is quite natural,” stressed Asgar.