Morbi, GUJARAT :
Gandhinagar :
As the entire country is still grappling to come to terms with the shocking incident of Morbi on Sunday, where around 150 lives were lost due to a 15-year-old cable bridge collapsing into the Machchu river in Gujarat, the Muslim community of Morbi saved over 80 lives after the mishap. (Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Morbi accident site and visited the injured persons admitted in the hospital).
Among the Muslims youths who saved lives included Hussain Mehboob Pathan, Taufeeq, Saddam and Naeem.
Pathan got a call at around 6 pm that the bridge hanging on the cable had collapsed and he was needed to save people from drowning. Being an expert swimmer, Hussein rushed off to the place and without worrying about his own safety, helped get around 50 people safely to the shore.
Hussein Pathan who saved about 50 lives.
“I got a call around 6 pm that the ‘Jhulato Pul’ (hanging bridge) had collapsed and people were drowning. I am an expert swimmer and jumped into the waters and saved around 50 people, including small children, pregnant ladies, and others. I heard that there were around 700 people on the bridge but I don’t know as I was there after the bridge collapsed. I haven’t been to the bridge since the restoration about seven months ago. I gave my best in trying to save as many lives as much as possible,” Hussein told the reporters.
Another Muslim young man Saddam said, “I don’t know swimming so I didn’t save anybody from drowning, but I helped others who were doing rescue work.”
“We have an expert team of 15 fishermen, all very good swimmers, from the Miyana community in Morbi and whenever any such tragedy occurs we rush off to save lives. Our community has saved around 80 persons from drowning in the Machchu river after the bridge collapsed,” said an elderly-looking person from the community.
None of those who saved people cared about the religion of the people they were saving.
Morbi’s Hussein Pathan (right) who saved about 50 lives.
Naeem Sheikh, who saved several lives along with his friends, said that one of his friends died while trying to save the life of a person. He said that he and his friends together saved 50 to 60 people.
Twitter described the Muslim youth who saved lives as Heroes.“This is the befitting Reply to Merchants of Hate! Humanity Transcends all Religions’” Twitter said.
ANHAD representative Dev Desai said that while some Muslims rescued the people from rivers, a few other Muslims like Hussein Pathan transported them to hospitals.
Meanwhile, police have arrested nine people from the Oreva group (Ajanta Manufacturing Pvt Ltd) that was given the contract for repairs and maintenance. Among the arrested persons are two managers, two ticket clerks, two contractors engaged by the company for repairs and three security guards.
The bridge had reopened on Sunday after seven months of repairs work.
A team of Indian National Congress leaders like Digvijay Singh and Gujarat Congress leaders Arjun Modhwadia and Gayasuddin Shaikh visited the venue.
“These miyana fishermen community residing in Visipara in Morbi have been extremely helpful to the administration in carrying out the search and rescue activities after the mishap. One Hassanbhai took out his fishing board and fished out around 30 to 35 bodies from the river. He didn’t check whether the victims were Hindu or Muslim and set an example of Hindu-Muslim unity. We thank all these people who have helped a lot. We also want the government and the administration to take cognition of their brave attempts and award them,” said Digvijay Singh.
source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Society> / Amit Cowper – by admin indiatomorrow / November 01st, 2022