THE Gombak Land Office will gazette the Batu Arang Christian cemetery as an official Christian burial ground.
The graveyard, which is about 06.ha large, sits on state land.
“I would like to advise committee members of various religious organisations to liaise with their respective land office to find out the status of burial grounds within their area.
“There are some burial grounds that have still not been gazetted and this should be done immediately,’’ said Gombak district officer Datuk Nor Hisham Dahlan.
He had visited the site recently after complaints by residents that some of foreigners had been buried there illegally.
Records showed that the Christian cemetery, located within Hindu burial grounds, had never been gazetted. However, the adjoining 1ha Hindu cemetery, managed by the Sri Bala Ganesar Temple Batu Arang committee was legal.
It was also reported that a syndicate was charging up to RM5,000 for each person to be buried and that burial ceremonies had taken place in the wee hours of the morning.
It was alleged that some shallow graves of those who had died of communicable diseases had also been buried there without permission
Nor Hisham had recently chaired a meeting with representatives from the Batu Arang Indian community, the police, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Immigration Department, National Registration Department, Selayang Municipal Council, land office and Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) at his office in Bandar Baru Selayang on the matter.
A decision was made that the Christian community be given the responsibility to manage their cemetery in the area.
“From now, the names of foreigners who are to be buried here must be first registered with the Batu Arang police station so that there will be proper records and their identities will be known,’’ he added.
On allegations that a Muslim had been buried there, Nor Hisham said Jais would handle the issue.
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