MALAYSIA, November 10, 2006 (HPI note: This is an editorial press release from the Malaysia Hindu Sangam):
The death of a 28 year old man in the prime of his life is always an occasion of grief and sorrow to all, particularly to his family. The Malaysia Hindu Sangam wholeheartedly condemns the actions of the Government (in the form of the Religious Affairs Departments in complicity with the police) in increasing the suffering of the family of the late Chandran Dharmadass, 28, who died on November 8,2006. Totally ignoring the wishes and grief of his mother and wife, about 40 police personnel (some wearing FRU uniforms) escorted an Islamic Affairs Department van in the early hours of Friday morning and buried Chandran at 4:00 a.m. this morning according to Islamic rites at Gopeng.
Ignoring a promise given to the family by a senior police officer in Kuantan that the family would be permitted to carry out their own prayers in their own home before the body was taken away to be buried, the body was taken straight to the Islamic burial ground only stopping for a few moments for the late Chandran’s mother and widow to see his body briefly. The senior police officer and religious officers in Gopeng prohibited the widow and mother from reciting any prayers or performing any rites.
The family disputes that Chandran ever converted to Islam. Until his death, he professed himself a Hindu and practised Hinduism. In 2004, Chandran had married a Thai lady according to Buddhist rites, and has a two year old child with her with another child on the way. The Malaysia Hindu Sangam is extremely disappointed that persons totally unknown to Chandran, who did not now the family or the deceased and had never met him before in their lives, interfered in this personal family tragedy to increase the sorrow and suffering of the grieving mother and widow.