Mortal remains of 160 Pak Hindus reach India

ATTARI: The mortal remains of 160 Pakistani Hindus who died in the past one decade were brought to India through the Attari-Wagah joint check post on Thursday.

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The families of the deceased could not accompany the mortal remains due to lack of visa but a two-member delegation led by Mahant Ram Nath Mishra reached India on Thursday.

Placed in four big bags, the mortal remains and ashes of people who died in Pakistan were brought to India after five years.

Talking to HT after reaching India, Mahant Ram Nath Mishra said: “The mortal remains are being brought to India for their immersion into Ganga. They will be immersed after following the Hindu rituals at Haridwar. These are the remains of the people who died in different places of Pakistan between two to ten years.”

Mishra further told that the kin of the deceased wanted that these mortal remains to be consigned to Ganga after the following rituals. They were kept in the cremation ground in Pakistan since then, he added.

Mishra added that remains of 40 more persons who died few years back are in Pakistan. Nearly 10 people had applied for a visa but only two of us got it so we could only bring the remains that we could manage, he said.

Demanding that visa norms must be relaxed, Mishra said, “We are coming after five years just because we could not get visa two times. There are families in Pakistan who want that immersion must be done at Haridwar so there is a need to relax visa issues .”

He shared that due to the strong belief, many families keep mortal remains for years and wait for immersion at Haridwar.

As people from New Delhi had come to the border to receive the ashes, they will be first taken to Delhi and then Haridwar.

Folklore Research Academy head Ramesh Yadav said that there was need for visa relaxation such cases and sentiments of the people must be prioritised.