Pyres everywhere, tearful adieu

PK Jaiswar
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, October 20

Heart-rending scenes were witnessed at Shiv Puri cremation ground, where most of the Amritsar mishap victims were consigned to the flames after a post-mortem examination. Inconsolable, some family members fainted.

The cremations started at 8:30 am, even as ambulances kept bringing bodies every 10 minutes. A heavy police force was deployed.

“I have never seen such a large number of cremations on a single day in the holy city. It is a dark day in the history of Amritsar,” said Ramesh Chander Sharma, president of the Durgiana Temple management committee that manages the cremation ground.

“We even used vacant spaces between two platforms, meant for the rituals of the Arya Samaj community, for cremating the victims and other deceased persons,” he added.

The committee did not charge anything from the families for the cremations. “In this hour of grief, our deepest sympathies are with the families,” said Pink Raj, an employee of the committee. The latter has been providing food and tea to the people at the Civil Hospital and Guru Nanak Dev Hospital since Friday night. Students of Laxmi Narayan Ayurvedic College donated blood to the injured.

As many as 29 bodies were cremated at Shiv Puri (Durgiana Temple), while five were cremated in the Mohkampura area. Two victims were consigned to the flames at the cremation ground near Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh. Four bodies had been sent to Uttar Pradesh. The bodies of three migrants were kept by the committee as relatives from their native places were on the way to the city.

Sharma said a bus would be arranged for family members of the victims for the funeral rites at Hardwar.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal visited the Shiv Puri cremation ground and expressed condolences with the bereaved families.