Cemeteries flooded, villagers cremate body along highway

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Gidderpindi, August 22

Such has become the plight of flood-hit villages that they are being forced to cremate the dead along a highway as all cemeteries in villages have been inundated.

On Thursday morning, a 20-year-old youth, Ram, passed away in Kutbewal village of Shahkot. His distraught family and villagers held his last rites near the highway as the cemeteries in their village and adjoining areas were flooded with eight to 10-foot-deep water.

Mukhtiar Singh, father of the deceased youth, said, “The loss of the son has certainly broken me. A bigger trauma for my family was that we could not cremate him in a proper manner. This certainly was not the right way. But this was the only option available in such circumstances as there is no scope of water receding in next few days”.

With their pyjamas folded up to knees, the villagers said they carried the youth's body for over three kilometre through flooded streets and fields to reach a safe place to cremate him. Over the cause of his death, the family said the boy was suffering from diabetes and was under treatment for a long time.

Two days ago, Bhupinder Singh of Gidderpindi had cremated the body of his wife Daljeet Kaur along the highway due to the same reason.