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South Tangerang cemetery demolition sparks outrage among locals
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Bodies have been disinterred and relocated from the Bambu Apus cemetery, which stands on wakaf land in Pamulang, South Tangerang, to make way for the construction of the Serpong-Cinere toll road. Residents whose family members were buried there are upset because of the short notice of the destruction. (tribunjakarta.com/Jaisy Rahman Tohir)
T
he recent destruction of the Bambu Apus cemetery, which stands on wakaf land (land donated for public purposes), to make way for the construction of the Serpong-Cinere toll road in Pamulang, South Tangerang, has enraged locals whose family members were buried in the area.
Among those locals is Nadia, who said the cemetery’s caretakers only informed her on Saturday that her brother’s grave was to be displaced, mere hours before the graveyard was destroyed.
She said she became angry upon visiting the site not long after only to find the cemetery already dug up. Caretakers had put her brother’s body into a sealed casket and stacked it with several others. She said she tried to get the caretakers to open it, but to no avail.
“This is madness. There were no prior announcements to families. They should have informed us a day before they demolished it since we could have been busy working,” said Nadia, as quoted by TribunJakarta.com.
However, graveyard caretaker Aim Ganin denied the accusations that the destruction had happened suddenly, claiming that the affected families had been informed ahead of time.
“We disseminated the information [officially] for about three days, but I had already been informing residents since a week ago,” Aim told TribunJakarta. (mai)
