MALAPPURAM: The news of the demise of Biyyathhil Mohiuddin Kutty, 90, popularly known as B M Kutty, a Kerala-born Pakistan politician, put his relatives in Tirur in a state of sadness on Sunday. After receiving confirmation of the death from Karachi in the early morning, the relatives gathered at the residence of Mohammed Kutty, 70, the younger brother of B M Kutty.
They spent the day mostly in silence, mourning, reading the autobiography of B M Kutty and glancing through some of his old pictures. Sometimes, they were seen answering questions about B M Kutty to media persons and other people reaching them over phone from various parts of the country.
They could not go to Pakistan to pay homage as the cremation was arranged soon after the death. As part of paying last respects, the family members donated groceries to the poor people in the area and conduced religious prayers in the evening. Mohammed, who spent most of the day reading B M Kutty’ autobiography, says he was a true Communist till his death.
“My brother was a true Communist as he was always worried about the problems of common people. Even after his long career as a politician and diplomat, he did not earn much for himself and his family. He was living in a rented house till 2010. Whenever he came to Kerala, I had to help him meet the expenses of his stay here,” he says.
B M Kutty migrated to Pakistan in 1947 when he was 19. Mohammed was born in 1949. Like Mohammed, B M Kutty was unfamiliar to most of his family members here. “He went to Pakistan two years before I was born. I did not get a chance to see him for several years. Though we really wanted to see him and spend time with him, we were unable to do it till 2002. He rarely visited Kerala till that time. After that, he began visiting the residence in Tirur once in two years. We were really happy to spend time with him as he was an inspiration to everyone in the family,” he adds.
Mohammed says B M Kutty fell ill in 2017. “A stroke left him with one side paralysed. Later, he flew into Kerala and received treatment from a private ayurveda hospital in Palakkad. He went back to Pakistan with great improvement,” says Mohammed.
His family members wanted BMK to stay in Tirur for better treatment, but it was B M Kutty’s decision to go back to Pakistan. “He said ‘I don’t want to change the nationality in the last days of life. I will die as a Pakistani who always wanted a great relationship with India’,” Mohammed remembers.
B M Kutty is survived by son Jawaid Mohiuddin, and daughters Roobi Mohiuddin and Shazia Mohiuddin. His wife, Brigees Mohiuddin, had died earlier.