This Article is From Feb 05, 2016

In Support To Lone Pandit Widow, Village Captures Essence of Kashmiriyat

Rani says she doesn't want to leave the village.

Srinagar: The entire village of Malvan in South Kashmir stood by the only Hindu family in town last Saturday to mourn the death of 85-year-old Jankinath, a Kashmiri Pandit, and perform his last rites.

His widow 80-year-old Rani, now the last Hindu woman in the village, however does not want to leave the village to live with her daughter in Jammu where majority of Kashmiri Pandits have settled after their mass exodus in 1990.

She says she is confident that her neighbours will continue to take care of her every need and doesn't feel alone and helpless.

"My daughter wants me to live with her in Jammu but my heart doesn't allow me to leave this place. These people are doing everything for me; medicine, washing my clothes, cooking food for me, everything," she told NDTV.
 

Her neighbours take care of everything, says Rani.

Rani's neighbour for ten years and no less than family, Saja Begum said she has appointed her son Sajad Ahmad for the service of the pandit couple.

"We stand guilty before God if we don't take care of them. We always feel for them. He (Jankinath) was very pious man," said Saja Begum.

Her son Sajad said it is the "moral duty" of every villager to take care of the lone Pandit family.

"We will take care of Rani ji. If any Pandit wants to return, inshallah I will dedicate myself for their service as well. We never think who is Hindu and who is Muslim. We all are human."

For local Muslims who consider serving 80-year-old Pandit woman is like serving the almighty, 'Kashmiryat' - the essence of being Kashmiri - lives on.
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