Mass burial of unclaimed bodies pains Indian religious leaders

Aug 06, 2024

KERALA, INDIA: Christian and Muslim religious leaders, who jointly prayed at the mass burial of mutilated body parts and unidentified bodies following the deadly landslides in southern India, say the experience overwhelmed them.

“It is unimaginable for me,” Father Jibin Vattukulam, parish priest of St. Sebastian Church in Chooralmala village, said. He had attended the mass funeral of 29 unidentified bodies and 154 mutilated body parts of victims in Kerala's state's Wayanad on Aug. 5.

The priest said that few people attended the second such funeral near the landslide site, which was held on a piece of land allotted by a tea estate company.

The graves containing mutilated body parts and unidentified bodies are inscribed with a number matching the blood sample.

The hilly district of Wayanad in the southern state witnessed a devastating landslide on the night of July 30, and villages like Chooralmala and Mundakkai vanished without a trace.

Nearly 407  people have been killed, and over 200 have been declared missing, according to local media.

“I prayed for the eternal peace of all the departed souls,” Father Vattukulam said.

The body parts were brought in ambulances as per protocol “with utmost respect,” noted the priest.

In the first mass burial on Aug. 4, when eight unidentified bodies were laid to rest, many people attended it. This time, they were missing. But many relatives were there, noted Vattukulam.

“It is heart-wrenching to see people pay homage to unidentified bodies and mutilated body parts,” said Mustapha Faizi, the imam of Meppadi mosque in the local township.

Faizi led the Muslim prayers on both occasions. The villagers hail from mixed Christian, Hindu, and Muslim communities.

“We are all human beings, nothing less and nothing more,” Faizi added.

The government has put up concrete slabs on each grave, inscribing an individual number matching the DNA samples to help future family members identify their loved ones.

“It is a terrible situation,” said Faizi.

Majid Thattarakkad, a resident of Mundakkai, was weeping for two of his family members who are still missing.

“I attended the funeral on Aug. 5 to pay tributes to the departed souls,” he said.

The bodies are decomposed and dismembered, and nobody can identify them. “We are wondering if our dear ones and their body parts are there in the mass graves,” observed Thattarakkad.--ucanews.com