Srinagar: The Covid-19 pandemic has added to the responsibilities of Jammu and Kashmir police with those deployed in Srinagar facing extra burden of dealing with the issues they never confronted before.
Srinagar, the city of 1.5 million is seeing police in a “new avatar.” From enforcing lockdown to checking the prices of essential commodities, arresting burglars, to preventing the drug abuse, the police has now taken an active role in the burial of those who die of Covid-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, the death of elderly woman in Rainawari area of old Srinagar, forced police to volunteer themselves for a role they never did before in Srinagar. It was all about digging the grave for the Covid victim, the elderly woman who died in Chest disease hospital, a day after she was tested positive.
Since almost all the family members of the deceased woman were under hospital quarantine, the police moved a step ahead and dug a grave at Srinagar’s largest graveyard Malkhah, themselves.
A picture that went viral on the social media showed policemen digging a grave for the deceased woman from Rainawari.
“Our boys volunteered for it and dug the grave,” one of the top police officials told KINS. A doctor in a Srinagar hospital told news agency KINS that almost all the family members of the deceased woman were under quarantine and none of them could participate in the funeral or burial of the woman, barring few relatives.
“It is not that family refused to take the body of the woman. Since all of them were under quarantine, they couldn’t participate in her funeral. The neighbours of the woman were supposed to stay indoors as per WHO guidelines,” he said.
Police help for the burial of the woman came at a time when police men especially those deployed in Srinagar district, are facing tremendous workload given the fact that they are enforcing lockdown on streets amid fasting, arresting the violators of lockdown and also maintaining law and order.
The police men also support health departments screening drive and go along with the teams of doctors to ensure door to door surveys and contact tracing is done in a hassle free manner.
In all this, burial of Covid-19 victim was an extraordinary task done by the police for which locals of Rainawari and the relatives of the woman were all praise for. “This is really a human gesture and we are thankful to police for performing last rites including digging of the grave for the woman,” locals of Rainawari said.(KINS)