The Hindu : National : Lying dead, identity less

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

National

National

Lying dead, identity less

Staff Reporter

THANNA MANDI (RAJOURI): In the last 15 years, hundreds of people who came from different parts of Pakistan to fight in the name of jehad had been killed by security forces and their graves do not have epitaphs. Most of these men were commanders of various militant outfits and were dreaded in their lifetime. Many times, foreign militants gave diktats to the local population including asking women to wear burquas (veils).

For instance, in Thanna Mandi, an interior pocket of Rajouri, one of the hot beds of militancy, 20 to 25 cannals of land (one cannal equal to 5440 sqft) has been demarcated for burying foreign militants. The graveyard was built in 1997 and till now 40 foreign militants have been buried. But what distinguishes it from other graveyards in the area is that there are no epitaphs describing the identity of the militants.

Talking to The Hindu, Revenue officer Muzaffar Lone said, "According to the Islamic tradition, the dead have to be buried and the expenditure for the epitaph is to be borne by the family members of the deceased. Epitaph helps the generations of the dead to identity the grave. But when foreign militants started getting killed in large numbers, we faced a problem, as they were identity less."

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