July 07, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 6: The extended operation against the militants holed up in the Lal Masjid has brought double-misery to those who unfortunately lost their loved ones during the last four days, and were not even allowed to have proper funeral processions.

Though the break in curfew during the last couple of days helped affected residents to replenish their grocery and other necessary items, those who were grieving the deaths of their relatives due to natural causes could not do much about it.

The family of the late daughter-in-law of Dawn’s librarian Ramzan Ali, a resident of G-6, who died on Thursday afternoon faced the same misery, when the family could not perform rituals related to a death and their relatives who had travelled as far as from Kasur district were forced to spend the night outside the curfew zone on a road.

“Soon after the news of death, our main concern was how to make arrangements for the relatives who were bound to stay overnight in Islamabad to take part in the funeral procession scheduled for Friday noon,” nephew of Mr Ali told this scribe.

Despite best efforts by everybody known to Mr Ali, security personnel deployed at various checkposts did not allow his relatives to be with him to share the grief of the untimely death of his daughter-in-law, he said. She was just 32, a mother of three.

In response to a question he said, “despite our insistence to close relatives that they should not travel to Islamabad due to the prevailing conditions, some 20 males and females including children could not stay back and decided to brave the curfew which eventually they had to”. They spent the whole night arguing with the security personnel at the checkpost established near Lal Quarters, so that they could be with the grieving family but to no avail.

What to talk about people who were coming from outside the city, when the security personnel even ordered the neighbours to return to their homes and not gather outside Mr Ali’s two bedroom official residence that had been allotted to his son, he said.

Replying to another question, he explained that after negotiating with the security people Friday morning, the body was brought back home for mandatory pre-burial bath and very quietly shifted to Islamabad graveyard for the funeral procession.

Similarly, a death was also reported on the second day of the operation in Mr Ali’s neighbourhood and the family had to face to the same kind of difficulties, he said.