Six feet under: Woman’s grave desecrated in Faisalabad

Samundri residents say some men cut off hair from the body for black magic.

FAISALABAD:

Over 100 residents of Sammundri on Friday protested police inaction of an alleged case of necrophilia.

Naveed Akram, one of the protestors, told newsmen that 45-year-old Bushra Bibi, wife of Muhammad Akhtar, died nine days before Eid and was buried in a graveyard in Sammundri.

He said on Thursday night, some unidentified men dug up the body, cut off hair itrs and molested it.

The protestors carried posters and chanted slogans, calling for the arrest of criminals responsible. They also burnt tyres.

They marched on the Faisalabad-Samundri Road and blocked it for traffic.

Nooruddin, another protestor, said he believed the men had taken hair from the woman’s body to use it for black magic.

He said the police should launch a crackdown against quacks and practitioners of black magic.

He said this was not the first time a grave had been desecrated in the area. He said four such incidents had been reported last year.

The protestors called for immediate arrest of those responsible.

Several shops were shut down on Faisalabad-Sammundri road. Business activities were also suspended in adjoining areas.

On being informed, Samundri Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) Ejaz Ahmad and City Sammundri Station House Officer (SHO) Naveed Pehalwan and a heavy police contingent reached the spot and pacified protestors by assuring them that those involved in digging out the woman’s body would be arrested shortly and taken to task in accordance with law.

On this assurance, the demonstrators then called off their protest and dispersed from the scene.

Ahmad told newsmen that the police had taken the grave digger, Gorkan, of the main Sammundri Graveyard into custody and were interrogating him.

He said Sammundri assistant commissioner and the town municipal officer (TMO) had been requested to raise the walls of the graveyard and install lights and barbed wires to check such incidents.

He said a police team had been deputed to watch the graveyard at night and a crackdown on quacks had been ordered to find the suspects.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2014.