A mosque's prayer hall becomes autopsy room in Kerala

The communal harmony prevailing in Kerala seems to have no bounds as a mosque in North Kerala has opened its prayer hall for performing postmortem examination of victims of a major landslide, irrespective of religion or caste.

A mosque at Pothukallu near Nilambur in Malappuram district has made the novel initiative.

With more and more decomposed bodies being recovered from Kavalapara, where a major landslide occurred on August 8 claiming many lives, the need to conduct postmortem examinations swiftly became essential. The nearest government hospital with postmortem facility is 45 kilometres away from the spot. Hence a medical team started searching for an ideal place near Kavalapara to set up a temporary postmortem facility.

The local mosque authorities who came across this offered the prayer hall for the purpose. Three post-mortem tables were swiftly made ready at a prayer hall and many postmortem examinations were performed there over the last couple of days.

Bowled over by the gesture of the mosque, Parameswaran, an attender of Manjeri government medical college in Malappuram, said in a video post on the social media that the mosque has become a model of communal harmony prevailing in Kerala as bodies of the all the victims of the natural calamity, irrespective of their religion or caste, were being subjected to postmortem examination at the mosque's prayer hall.

A civil police officer of the Pothukallu police station told DH that the mosque authorities offered the space for conducting the postmortem without any hesitation. "Such gestures would further strengthen the communal harmony that has been prevailing in the region," he said.

Till Wednesday 30 bodies were recovered from the Kavalapara landslide spot and 29 persons were still reported missing.