PK Karachi asv2020-02 img59 Gora Cemetery

PK Karachi asv2020-02 img61 Gora Cemetery

The Gora Qabaristan (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
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BBC News 1 September 2015
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Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

's only operational

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

History

The original consecration of the Karachi Christian Cemetery was in 1845 during

colonial rule Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

but there is a tombstone set in the wall near the main gate of the cemetery bearing the date 1843. The graveyard covers an area of around 20 acres. After the

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

in 1947, the British High Commission in Karachi invited the members of the various Christian bodies to form the Karachi Christian Cemeteries Board. Its official name is 'Maseehi Qabraistan' (meaning Christian Cemetery). There is some evidence that an even older Christian cemetery existed on

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road (), frequently abbreviated as MA Jinnah Road, is a major thoroughfare in central Karachi, Pakistan. The road was originally named Bandar Road ( ;''"Port Road"''), owing to the fact that it linked the city to the Port of ...

near an area known as Eidgah. Having fallen into disuse it has since been built over with commercial establishments. In May 2002, the mutilated body of American journalist

Daniel Pearl Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.' Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...

was found in the graveyard. No one knows how it was dumped there.Zakaria R. The Upstairs Wife, Beacon Press, 2015. In 2016 it was reported that 300,000 bodies were registered to be buried here. However, there is space for only 3,000 graves, which means each grave has been used one hundred times over its history.

Location

It is located on main

Shahrah-e-Faisal Shahrah-e-Faisal, founded as Drigh Road, is a boulevard in Karachi that runs , from the Bhutto Underpass near Hotel Metropole in central Karachi, to Star Gate near Jinnah International Airport, where it becomes N-5 National Highway.

Division

Until around 1981, the cemetery was divided into two parts,

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. However, since then, the wall separating them was removed and the two merged.

Management

The Karachi Christian Cemetery Board manages its affairs. Over time the condition of the cemetery has deteriorated. In 1995, a group called CARE (Caring, putting into Action, and Restoring the

Environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...

of the cemetery), made up of people from all parishes and churches, made it their objective to make the cemetery a clean and peaceful resting place for the departed. Among the problems identified requiring attention were: stopping the continuous flow of sewage into the cemetery grounds; the cutting and clearing of weeds almost 8 feet high, removal of garbage piled up at least 3 feet high over an area of almost 2000 square yards along the West wall; the construction of a concrete wall (estimated to be 6,000 feet), and a permanent pumping station to drain out rain water during the monsoons. In 2006 the cemetery continues to be desecrated with boys of the surrounding localities playing cricket and football here causing damage to the graves.

Burial services

From 1885, burial services have been performed by a family firm, Anthony Coutinho and Company. The office still exists on Shahrah-e-Iraq, near St. Patrick's Cathedral, but it has all but stopped functioning. More recently, the St. Joseph's Association, a diocesan organization that organises burials has taken over this function.

Polish memorial

Following the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subse ...

, hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported to Soviet labor camps. Between 1942 and 1945 some 3,000 refugees were given refuge in Karachi. In memory of the 58

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

citizens who died in Karachi in the 1940s, a memorial has been erected by the Polish government.Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Karachi - Consulate's Activity in '2005
/ref> It lists the names of all 58 individuals. The most prominent Pole buried in the cemetery is Air Commodore

Władysław Turowicz Air Commodore Władysław Józef Marian Turowicz ( ur, ولادیسلاو جوزف مارئین تورووچ, translit=Vladislav Joseph Torovich; 23 April 1908 – 8 January 1980), usually referred to as W. J. M. Turowicz, was a Polish-Pa ...

who played a key role in Pakistan's aviation and aerospace industry.

Renovations

The city's district government in 2011 installed two new gates and paved the pathways inside the graveyard.UCANews 4 November 2011
/ref> In 2014 a giant cross, said to be one of the highest in the region - about 43m, has been constructed just inside the cemetery wall. The construction of the cross has been paid for by a Christian businessman, Parvez Henry Gill.

References

{{Coord, 24.8556, 67.0499, display=title Cemeteries in Karachi Christianity in Pakistan