Kin of dead Karachi Hindus await visas for immersing ashes in Ganges

Karachi, May 9 : For years together, pots containing ashes of the late Hindus have been kept at a catalogue room inside the library at the Gujjar Hindu Community Burial and Cremation Ground in Karachi, to be immersed in the holy Ganges (in India), but the Pakistan government has not yet granted visas for their transit to India.

Pakistan Hindu Council president Hari Motwani said that his organization had repeatedly contacted the Pakistan government to give visas to sons and daughters of the late Hindus whose ashes are kept here, but to no avail.

"Several Sindhi Hindus have been waiting for many years," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.

"When people started putting the ashes here, we requested them to take them away as soon as possible, but it is very difficult for them to get visas to go to India," said Murad Bukhsh, the elderly watchman of the Cremation Ground.

Before Partition there was a library inside this cremation ground, but the books have long decayed. Karachi's Hindus began filling the room of the library with images of the gods and goddesses, while in a neighboring room slowly started to fill up with the ashes of the dead Hindus. "They are waiting for visas so they may take these ashes to immerse them in the holy River Ganges," said Murad Bukhsh.

A group photo of the managing committee (1937-41) hangs on the wall. A statue of the famous philanthropist, Dalpat Rai Sonavaria, stands in front of the high-ceilinged main hall where the cremations are performed. Also present is a marble tombstone of the city's famous philanthropist and former Hindu Panchayat president Seth T. Motandas, J.P.

ANI