Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagham Performs Free Last Rites For Unclaimed Covid Bodies

The Coimbatore-based NGO buried or cremated over 350 bodies as per their religious rituals without charging anything from the deceased's kin since the pandemic. Of which 120 were in the second wave of Covid.

TMMK performing last rites to an unclaimed Covid victim. (Image: ANI)

Coimbatore: It most of the times tend to see the essence of secularism while breaking the religious barriers, people celebrate festivals across religions in the country. But, in Coimbatore an NGO — Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagham (TMMK) — came forward to perform last rites for the unattended Covid bodies with respective to their religious rituals.

In an unusual scenario, a Coimbatore-based NGO buried or cremated over 350 bodies as per their religious rituals without charging anything from the deceased's kin since the pandemic.

"We buried/cremated more than 350 bodies since the pandemic began and 120 bodies in this second wave alone according to Hindu, Muslim and Christian religious rituals without charging anything from the deceased's kin. We have a strong belief that doing this kind of work is a service to mankind and they don't mind any religion,” Feros Khan, a social worker from TMMK told ANI.

He further said that, "We perform the rituals according to their religion and we have more than six teams and had buried/cremated more than 350 COVID-19 bodies in Coimbatore alone. We do not get any infection while handling the Covid bodies. We believe our 'Allah' is with us and our family is being cared for by our party TMMK and we are doing this as a service and not for money."

Some local people termed this work as a real example of communal harmony in Coimbatore.

Zeeshan Ali’s Heroics

Meanwhile, Zeeshan Ali, a B Tech final year student extended his hand to support performing last rites to the unclaimed dead bodies, who succumbed due to Covid-19 in Telangana. The NGO has performed last rites to 1,800 bodies from various parts of Telangana. The student said that he couldn't bear when the people succumbed to Covid-19 were lying unattended by relatives and that's what pushed him to an extend to perform last rites irrespective of the vistim's religion.

(With inputs from ANI)