Graveyard blues: No resting in peace for the dead

TMA clash with locals after demolishing graves for road expansion.

FAISALABAD:

The local administration recently dug up a grave yard in the area to extend a road. Several residents have protested that they were not informed of the measures and that the bodies of their loved ones have been disposed off without their consent.

According to local residents in Pipan Wala, the tehsil municipal administration (TMA) recently started a road extension project in Madina Town and one of the sections of the roads overlapped with a central graveyard.

“There had been a lot of haggling over whether or not the road should be expanded but we finally reached an agreement with the local people and they were told that the graves would be excavated in advance,” said TMA official Safdar Kashif.

“The problem is that very few people came to collect the remains of their loved ones and we had to continue the operation anyway,” he added.

The Canal road at Pipan Wala Pul to Madina town is being extended and the administration used over nine feet of graveyard land. Local residents said that over 34 graves had been destroyed in the process.

“The TMA did not bother to excavate anything. We saw them simply run bulldozers in the area without any care for the dead,” said Pipan Wala resident Arif. “We cannot ignore the fact that they aren’t even telling us where they have disposed off the bodies,” he said.

A large group of protesters blocked the road and construction vehicles on Wednesday to protest the destruction of the graveyard. Locals said that the TMA had not issued any significant notice of the incident.

“My father is buried here and I did not receive any notice that they would be tearing down the graves. Now they aren’t telling me where his body is,” said Waleed Raza.

TMA officials insist that they made a public announcement three days ago in this regard. “We announced that we would be shifting the bodies to an alternate place,” said construction worker Yasir. “The people are actually protesting about the graves being torn down and this makes no sense.

We cannot expand the road without tearing down the headstones,” he added.

“There were no announcements and even if they were the TMA is not telling us where they have shifted the bodies,” said Raza. “This is illegal. These people need to have some respect for the dead. They cannot tear down graves,” he added.

TMA officials said that they informed the families in advance of the operation but many heirs did not show up to retrieve the bodies and so the graves were leveled according to the construction schedule. The administration had called strong contingents of police to control any untoward incident and police officials removed the protesters from the site.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2011.