Local Muslims in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district helped in performing the last rites of a 70-year-old Kashmiri Pandit, who died on Tuesday.

Setting an example of communal harmony and brotherhood, the local Muslims in Batapora Wahibugh village of Newa hamlet in South Kashmir’s Pulwama came together to help perform the last rites of their Pandit neighbor.

Parry Lal Pandit resident of Wahibugh village about 8 kilometer from Pulwama town was a known figure in the area as according to the locals, he used to help persons in need.

As only a few of his family members were around, Lal’s local friends and neighbours from the Muslim community took it upon themselves to help perform his last rites, locals said.

The local Muslims organised and performed his last rites and mourned his death as one of their own. They shouldered his coffin and arranged wood for the cremation in the village, said Javaid Ahmad a local.

“He was one of us. We never thought of him as a KP. We arranged everything needed for the cremation,” said Mohammad Ramzan, a middle-aged man from the locality.

“He has been living here among us for many years. We have lived alongside each other and done everything together,” he said, adding that people from other adjacent areas also visited the residence to sympathise with the bereaved family members.

Lal’s relatives also said that Muslims of the village always help them in times of need and they don’t intervene in the religious affairs.

“They (Muslims) sit at a distance when a ritual has to be done by a Pandit, but the rest of the arrangements were arranged by them,” they said.