Srinagar June 4: Upholding the age-old tradition of communal harmony in the valley, the Muslim neighbourhood in Ajas locality of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district helped perform the last rites of an elderly Kashmiri Pandit woman on Friday.
Quoting locals, news agency KNO reported that Rattan Rani Bhat, 90, wife of Late Kashi Nath Bhat breathed her last at her home at Ajas in the wee hours on Friday, plunging the whole locality in mourning.
Soon after the news of her death spread, the Muslims neighbours made special arrangements for performing the last rites.
The son of Rani Bhat while thanking the local Muslims, said, “I have never felt alone here for the past several years despite militancy and the claims of local Pandits being harassed elsewhere.”
He said that he is proud and thankful that he did not leave the Kashmir valley.
“We were one and shared a great camaraderie. Our families used to visit each other, eat together and we always remained together in happiness and sorrow. We lost a friend, well-wisher and a noble soul and the entire area is saddened by his death,” Mohammad Ashraf, a local resident of Ajas said