Mostafa Hakim Group’s noble gesture

Mostafa Hakim Group, one of the eminent business conglomerates of Chattogram, has constructed the connecting road to a crematorium, Sri Sri Sarvajanin Sanad Dutta Maha-Smashan, thus making it easy to cremate bodies of Hindus who died of Covid-19.

"Last year, when the ongoing coronavirus pandemic first started, various crematoriums were declining to cremate the bodies of Covid victims. In this situation, the district administration decided to cremate bodies at Sanad Dutta Crematorium on the beach in North Kattoli Ward in the port city," said Subhas Das, president of the cremation committee of Sanad Dutta Crematorium. 

But in the rainy season, he continued, the whole cremation area went under water. Pictures of cremation standing in waist-deep water went viral on social media, triggering a lot of criticism. 

The Mostafa-Hakim group came forward to resolve the problem. They built various facilities, including the connecting road to the crematorium, at a cost of Tk15 lakh.

Subhas Das said earlier, only one or two bodies would be cremated there. But since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of cremations has increased manifold.

Mostafa Hakim Group has helped set up a cremation ground at Chattogram’s Kornelhat. Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin/TBS

Krishna Bhajan Acharya, a local resident and former engineer, said 72 bodies have been cremated in this crematorium during the pandemic.

Earlier in 1998, Mostafa Hakim Group contributed to the reestablishment of the century-old crematorium also, Subhas Das informed.

Describing the background of the crematorium, Subhas said, "The Sanad Dutta crematorium was established on the beach in North Kattoli a hundred years ago, which was washed away by the sea in the course of time. But, 30 years ago the sea returned to that point, and a sandbar came up on the coast.  

However, there was no way to cremate bodies there with no means to cross over and get there. In 1998, the Mostafa Hakim Group, at a cost of Tk5 lakh, reestablished the crematorium."

The Mostafa Hakim Group also rebuilt the century-old Sri Sri Magadheshwari temple in the port city.

The temple was first established in the North Kattoli of Chattogram city in 1910. In 2007, it was rebuilt into a three-storey building under the patronage of M Manzur Alam, managing director of the Mostafa-Hakim Group and also former CCC mayor, said Ratan Talukder, advisor to the temple.

He said Hindu devotees were somehow carrying out their religious rituals in the 97-year old small dilapidated tin-shed temple. Being requested by us, the Mostafa Hakim Group came forward to rebuild it, turning the decaying small temple into a three-storey building where scores of Hindu devotees are now thronging every day to worship.

After reconstruction, the temple has been renamed Sri Sri Seva Khola and Vaikunthadham Temple, he added.