Let Shahmira Oad’s body rest in peace

Anees Jillani
02 Mar 2010

The universe has existed for more than four billion years, and it may last several more billion years. And maybe even for infinity. The scale is beyond our comprehension, and the least we all can realise is the fact that all religions are recent occurrences when placed on this mammoth time scale of four billion years.
Discrimination on the basis of religion thus makes no sense, but it seems that some who have appropriated the role of mediators between ourselves and a higher truth are determined to prove that some people, on the basis of their religious affiliation, are more equal than others, even to the point of not allowing the dead to rest in peace.
Sheeraz Qureshi, a maulvi claiming to hold a master’s degree in Physics, is leading a crusade in a village in Sindh, in Pakistan, to remove the body of a Hindu girl from a Muslim graveyard. Seventeen-year old Shahmira Oad, the daughter of Bachayo Oad, a resident of Hala, died on April 28, 2009, and was buried at the Khudabad graveyard, three kilometres southwest of New Hala town.
Shahmira Oad’s relatives buried her there only after receiving permission from the locals, including the caretaker of the graveyard. But Sheeraz Qureshi and other religious elements are quoting fatwas pronounced by some traditional religious leaders that only Muslims are allowed to bury their loved ones in Muslim graveyards.
All religions are supposed to be in conformity with the basic human values. It is doubtful if any religion calls for exhuming the body of a poor 17-year-old Hindu girl from a Muslim graveyard because her body is ‘defiling’ the graveyard. If anything, the removal of the body is likely to desecrate it and such an act would defile everybody buried there.
Shahmira’s family and the Hindu community in the area, which is not surprisingly poor, has been getting threats about her body. The local notables, instead of telling off the cleric not to rake up such a mindless issue, are pressuring the poor family to remove the body.
Shahmira’s grave is not even located anywhere close to the other graves in the graveyard, not that it would have made any difference. It is about five metres away from other graves. Despite this, in order to save her body from defilement and avoid a clash in the community, her family has expressed willingness to build a boundary wall around her grave.
The issue is fast threatening to turn into communal imbroglio and a suit has been filed in the court of a civil judge for removal of the grave. The judge is under immense local pressure. The opponents are saying that they “will not keep silent until the bones of the strange girl are thrown out of the graveyard”.
There are some sane voices in the community opposing the exhumation of the body on the grounds that several graveyards in the Sindh province are common burial grounds for both Hindus and Muslims. For instance, the graveyards alongside the famous shrines of great Sufi saints, like Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Sachchal Sarmast, Sufi Shah Inayat Shaheed, and other spiritual leaders, are open for burial regardless of religion.
It is said that Islam is the most tolerant religion. But if this is how we behave then what would distinguish us from the upper caste Hindus in Indian villages who refuse to permit people of lower castes to use the same well to draw water? Ganga is a holy river for all the Hindus; should the Hindus then forbid persons belonging to all other denominations from using its water?
We all feel the pinch when something happens to a Muslim and an Islamic symbol, like the mosque but we have no qualms about the religious feelings of others. Almost every Muslim in the world was saddened by the destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. But we don’t even think for a second about the conversion of innumerable Hindu and Sikh temples in the whole of Pakistan to schools, police stations, offices and sometimes even for keeping cattle. We cannot imagine such a thing happening to a mosque but have no objection to treating the religious places of others with utter contempt.
We all resent the recent ban on minarets in Switzerland; many of the Swiss and Europeans themselves are saddened by this development. But have we ever thought about the complete ban on construction of churches and temples in the whole of Saudi Arabia and in most of the Gulf countries? Non-Muslims are not even permitted to enter the cities of Mecca and Medina and we consider it our human right to even get elected to the parliaments of the so-called Christian countries, and acquire as much property as we can.
When will we in Pakistan learn to remember the basic truth that whatever we give to others, good or bad, it comes back, many times? Shouldn’t then we give more and more of what we want for ourselves to others so that the same will come back to us in greater quantities? We need to overcome our historical inability to follow the ethic of reciprocity, and to understand that it applies to all humans, and not merely to Muslims. Only when this is accomplished will religiously-related oppression, and mass murder cease. We all can make a beginning in this respect by letting Shahmira Oad rest in peace at her last resting place forever with Muslims as her neighbours.
(The author is a prominent Pakistan Supreme Court lawyer. E-mail: [email protected])

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Let+Shahmira+Oad%E2%80%99s+body+rest+in+peace&artid=69W4Mg0dy5Q=&SectionID=d16Fdk4iJhE=&MainSectionID=d16Fdk4iJhE=&SectionName=aVlZZy44Xq0bJKAA84nwcg==&SEO=Sheeraz%20Qureshi,%20Shahmira%20Oad,%20Bachayo%20Oad,%20Shah%20A