No resting in peace

Two young boys exhume their grandmother’s corpse and buried it in their village in the middle of the night.

MULTAN: In the Kacha Kho tehsil, two young boys exhumed their grandmother’s corpse and buried it in their village in the middle of the night on Thursday.

According to neighbours of the family in Chak-15 Sahuwala, 100-year-old Rajan Mai died on Thursday from natural causes and her family argued over where to bury her. “There was a huge dispute over where the woman would be buried as her two of her daughters wanted her to be buried in their village where she had been living with them but the third wanted her to be buried in Chopar Chattha,” said Rajan Mai’s neighbour Neelam, adding that Mai’s brother was accused of wanting to take the body back to the family’s ancestral village. “She had never really clarified her own wishes on the subject,” Sughran added.

Rajan Mai had three daughters Jannat Mai, Nooran Mai and Sughran Mai. The old woman was living with Sughran Mai in Kacha Kho where she died two days ago. Rajan’s brother and her two daughters Sughran and Nooran lived in Kacha Kho, 15-9R.

Rajan Mai’s funeral was held on Monday and a large number of people including her eldest daughter Jannat Mai attended the funeral with her two sons Bilal and Irshad.

Mai’s daughter Jannat insisted that her mother should be buried in her village. “The entire village knew of the dispute as the sisters broke into a fight during the funeral,” said a servant at the house, Atta.

Mai’s grandson’s Bilal and Irshad Khan remained adamant that their grand mother would be buried in their village in Chopar Chattha. “This is where she lived most of her life. She stayed in our home and she wanted to be buried here,” Irshad said.  Jannat Mai accused her sister Sughran of going against their mother’s wishes and burying her in their village.

Jannat said “I am the eldest in the family and the ‘pag’ is on my head. My mother should be buried near my house.”

According to police officials, after the funeral Jannat told her son’s to exhume the body and take it to their own village. Bilal and Irshad took the body on a motorbike at night. “We agreed that our grandmother should be buried in our village and our aunt is trying to brow beat us into agreeing with them,” Bilal said, adding that their aunt had registered a case against them to seek vengeance for a long standing family dispute.

Sughran Mai filed a case with the Saddar police station against her sister Jannat, her uncle Nawaz and her two nephews Bilal and Irshad. “They simply wouldn’t let the matter go. They broke into her grave and would not let her be in peace even after she was dead,” Sughran told the police, adding that her mother had suffered the sister’s family squabbles during her lifetime and was not spared even in death. Sughran has also implicated 11 other family members in her report.

Saddar district superintendent police Rehmat Ali Chattha said that the sisters had a long-standing dispute over property and other domestic issues but had mistakenly implicated Nawaz in the matter. “He has nothing to do with this, this was entirely between the sisters,” Chattha said, adding that he had registered a case against Jannat Mai and her son’s for abducting the body. “We have arrested Jannat but her son’s are still at large,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2010.