In an extremely saddening incident, body of an elderly man was exhumed from the grave for non-identification with a sect.

Mohammad Yusuf, 88, passed away on Tuesday morning at 1am and was buried at local graveyard at 11am on the same morning. Since, he refused to identify with any sect – Barelvi, Deobandi or Wahabi, locals from the Barelvi community, exhumed his body from the grave and the body was returned to his home in Khanjipeer.

Yusuf, a man recognized for his Urdu poetry was described as a free and secular man. He and his family identified themselves as Sunni only and did not identify with any sect thereafter.

His son, Hamid, recalls that they had buried Yusuf at 11am and the family left graveyard at 11:45am. However, in some time, the family started getting calls to dig out the body and take it back since Yusuf was a Wahabi and Wahabi’s are not to be buried in that graveyard.

Hamid said that they have dozens of relatives buried there. About 100-150 people had gathered there and insisted that we give in writing that Yusuf was a relative else they would throw the body on road. Despite the agreement to give written assurance, the people there exhumed Yusuf’s body.

The body was then taken to their native village in Mandsaur and buried.

Superintendent of Police Rajender Prasad said that they had not received any police complaint and the situation was calm.

Chief Quazi of Rajasthan, Khalid Usmani said that what happened was wrong; Muslims in India are already fragmented and people need to broaden their perspectives.

One could not, but recall Mohammad Yusuf’s lines written by himself:

“Rehne de nawazish, teri vehshat ka karam hai Khuddar ko kab chahiye imdad kisi ki“

Source: The Indian Express