KISTHWAR:  Family of Dr. Ashish Sharma getting married to Dr. Sonia Sharma, had to join at the bride’s home to solemnise their wedlock. “It was like crossing a hellhole,” Ashish’s father said. “We are just six Hindu families among 300 Muslim households in Shaheedi Mohalla. Hindus and Muslims were fighting pitched battles. Over a hundred vehicles, shops and hotels had been torched. But our Muslim neighbours, who were attending the function, said that the wedding should not be deferred and promised to escort the baraat”  the groom Ashish revealed.

In the evening, 70 Muslims escorted Ashish’s baraat to protect it from possible attacks. The married couple returned without being harassed or attacked by anyone from Pochal to Shaheedi Mohalla.

Dr. Wajid among the escort said: “Prophet Mohammad has said the minorities are my sacred amaanat for the Muslim Ummat. It’s our religious obligation to protect them…We all treat Nareshji as our brother, Ashish as our son and his sister as our daughter.  Whenever there’s a Janaza, they join us; whenever, there is a funeral procession, we join them. We eat, wear and live alike. They speak our language [Kashmiri]. The only difference is that they go to a temple and we go to a mosque for worshipping the Almighty.”

Read more: Communal Harmony