AMRITSAR: Despite instructions to the victims’ families not to open the coffins which arrived from
Iraq on Monday, a woman from
Bholewal village in Nawanshahr, Gurpinder Kaur, opened the casket of her brother, Manjinder Singh, only to find his bones and a black bag containing his hair, kada, and clothes.
She was not the only one overcome by grief. A man from Bohani village near Phagwara, Nirmal Singh, declared he would open the casket in which the remains of his son, Sukhwinder Singh, arrived. There were more such families which defied or were willing to defy the instructions.
On his arrival at Amritsar airport in the afternoon, junior Union external affairs minister
V K Singh said they had advised families against opening the coffins because the chemicals used on the remains could be harmful if exposed to the eyes.
As soon as she received her brother’s remains, Guprinder rushed to her village for the cremation. She burst into tears as they opened the coffin to find the bones of Manjinder. By Monday evening, two bodies had been cremated at Amritsar’s Sri Durgiana Committee cremation ground.
