No rest for the dearly departed

It was a very tough time for Parkash Singh when his wife suddenly died and he did not enough money to fulfill her last rites and take her dead body to the cremation ground in Attock district of Punjab.

Parkash had been displaced from Khyber District due to terrorism and the resultant military operation in the region and moved to Peshawar where he has been based in Hashtnagri for the last 11 years.

He runs a small shop near his rented home, however due to the Covid-19 pandemic, his business has also greatly suffered.

“First my business was suffered and it was difficult to fulfill the needs of our family and then later, my wife also died suddenly,” shared Parkash, while working in his small shop.

On January 27,2021 Parkash’s wife died suddenly from a heart attack which compelled him to take her dead body to Attock, around 145 kilometers distance from Peshawar, as there is not a single Shamshan Ghat in Peshawar or nearby districts to burn her dead body.

According to Parkash, the total expenditures of cremation was between Rs150,000 and Rs300,000, which included the cost of hiring an ambulance to transport his wife’s corpse and of three buses to transport him and 200 family members and relatives to attend the funeral and last cremations of the dead.

“I could not afford the high expenses and at one point I nearly decided to bury her in the Muslim graveyard but people from my community collected money to help me fulfill the entire cremation and funeral ceremony of my wife,” he recalled.

According to the Chairman Sikh Community Pakistan Radesh Sing Radesh Singh Toni, there are 60,000 people from the Sikh community living in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whereas there are only 10,000 Sikh families in Peshawar.

He said that there is no Shamshan Ghat facility for the Sikh community in Nowshera, Abbottabad, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Hangu, Khwazakhela and Shangla due to which the community faces a lot of difficulties and they have no other choice but to take their dead all the way to Attock district.

He said that people of the Sikh community take their dead to Attock and their relatives also travel to Attock for the last rituals that cause lots of trouble for the bereaved families.

According to him, the provincial government has allocated funds for a Shamshan Ghat several times but ultimately, they have not been utilised due to the unavailability of land in city areas.

Singh said that last year Rs 16 million had allocated but the due to high price of land in Peshawar it was not possible to purchase land in city area for the construction of Shamshan Ghat and graveyards.

“It has been impossible to find land in Peshawar city in the allocated budget. Matrah area of Peshawar was considered however, the people of the Sikh Community people did not agree with the government in purchasing land in that area of Peshawar as it was out of the city and they felt that may pose as a security issue for them,’ he shared.

In 2018, the Sikh community also moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) by seeking an order to direct the government to provide land for Shamshan Ghat.

Gurdev Singh, an elder of the Sikh Community said that majority of Sikh Community people living in Peshawar are very poor as they are serving low rank jobs in government departments or they run small businesses and cannot afford the high expense of taking their dead to another province.

More than just the financial cost, sometimes due to long traffic jams they are unable to reach Attock during the day time while there have also been instances where people in nearby areas have not let them cremate the bodies of their loved ones.

“There have been so many instances where people in the area have tried to stop us for burning dead bodies due to the smoke and smell it causes, which has compelled us to spend the whole night with dead body under the open sky and burn it the next morning,” he shared.

In 2020, the KP government allocated Rs 16 million to purchase land in seven districts including Peshawar, Swat, D I Khan, Chitral, Kohat, Nowshera and Bannu however, the price in Peshawar per mara price was Rs 1 million to Rs 2 million while the five marla price was nearly Rs 10 million.

According to Auqaf, Hajj, Religious and Minority Affairs Department Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa documents Rs 75, 600 million are allocated for 2021-22 to purchase and for minority graveyards and Shamshan Ghats along with construction of boundary walls. The documents states that the new Shamshan Ghat will be constructed in Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Nowshehra.

While Gurdev Sing appreciated government efforts to allocate the huge amount for construction of shamshan Ghat in different districts, he requested that they not repeat the previous practice of wasting the money and using the allocated amount on the right place and for the right purpose.

“If government resolves this issue, everyone in this community will be very thankful,” he said.

Sikh community head Peshawar Baba Gurpal Singh said, while talking to The Express Tribune, “Currently minorities are facing various difficulties. We have already filed writ petition in Peshawar High Court stating that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had allocated millions for the establishment of Shamshan Ghat and Christian graveyards, but the Department of Auqaf and Religious Affairs were employing delaying tactics in utilisation of these funds for establishment of Shamshan Ghat and graveyards for minorities of the province.”

He said that now they have chosen a place for construction of Shamshan Ghat in Peshawar City on Ring Road and requested the government to start construction work as soon as possible. “This place not only accessible but also secure for us because it is near Peshawar city,” he said. “The allocated amount is enough but this time it should be utilised properly.”

“We only need five marlas land for construction of Shamshan Ghat and Rs 10 million would be sufficient for purchasing and construction of boundary walls of Shamshan Ghat on Ring Road Peshawar,” he said.

He demanded the government resolve minority’s issues and utilise the allocated funds for right purpose.

According to Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Minorities Affairs Wazir Zada, the government has been interested in allocating funds for this purpose as far back as 1996 however, the only problem was the purchasing of land in Peshawar city.

He shared that every ADP government allocated funds for this purpose to construct specific places for minorities but due to unavailability of land in the city, the project has remained unfinished. He said that this time government has taken this matter very seriously and has also started construction work in Kohat and Chitral. He said that pretty soon the construction work will be started here in Peshawar, Bannu and Noweshra Shamashan Ghat.