Quake bridges communal divide

AHMEDABAD, FEB. 1. Overwhelmed by the Muslims' gesture in providing succour to the quake victims in Gujarat, Hindus swept and scoured a Shahi Masjid and invited their brethren to offer `namaaz' at the place of worship situated in the communally- sensitive Khadia area of the city.

Earlier, Muslims were scared to visit the mosque because of the area's long-history of communal riots, said Mr. Amjad Ali Rajput, Rajpur ward chief of the BJP's minority cell, today.

``However, the good Samaritan job done by Muslims in providing all possible help to their Hindu brethren had an impact and the Hindus of the locality on Sunday washed and cleaned the mosque before inviting us to offer prayers,'' he said. Since then, Muslims have been offering prayers at the Khadia Shahi Masjid five times a day without any hesitation or fear, he added.A large number of Muslim youth have been camping at the municipal corporation-run V S hospital in the city since January 26 to provide help to the quake victims and their families by giving blood, food and medicines, besides emotional support.

The youth, hailing from Behrampura, Jamalpur and Kagdiwad localities of the Walled City have saved the lives of nearly 100 Hindu quake victims by donating their blood.

Aslam Rangira Bagchi, a Muslim youth from Jamalpur, said ``there are about 100 Muslim youth camping here since January 26.

At least 35 of them have donated blood a number of times so as to avoid shortage of blood at the V S hospital, which continues to witness an unending stream of quake victims, who are mostly Hindus.''

- PTI

JKLF leader, Javed Mir, donates blood in Srinagar for Gujarat quake victims.

- Reuters

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