AHMEDABAD: At a time when communal tensions are plaguing the country, a Muslim man gives us a stellar example of interfaith brotherhood by performing the last rites of a 23-year-old Hindu man who was killed in an accident.
According to DNA news, the deceased Kishor Thakor’s father an accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre, asked Yusuf Malek, 40 aka “Yusufbhai” to perform the final rites of his son.
“My son had an emotional and social bond with the Maleks. How could I take away the right to perform his last rites from them? For me, Yusuf is his elder brother,” said Kishor’s father Baldev, a resident of Naroda.
A distraught Yusuf said when Kishor didn’t return home from Dholka till the late night of August 23 after meeting his cousin sister, he called him up but a police officer answered Kishor’s cell phone and told informed Yusuf that he had been hospitalized.
“Upon reaching the hospital, we came to know that Kishor had been killed in a road accident,” said Sharif, Yusuf’s younger brother, who is a witness in the riots case.
“We couldn’t believe it. We brought his body back to Ahmedabad. Kishor was like a younger brother to us. Our family member is no more,” Sharif said.
After performing the final rites, Yusuf shaved his head in keeping with the Hindu ritual of tonsure.
Yusuf, who also performs all the rituals for Kishor’s marriage instead of Kishor’s father said that Kishor actually grew up in their home. “He lived with us.”