Bridging religious divide, Sangam city residents provide succour to pilgrims

Cutting across barriers of caste, creed and religion, Sangam city residents stepped out to help lakhs of pilgrims who suddenly found themselves struggling to find their bearings following the stampede on January 29.

Residents banded together and offered succour to hapless pilgrims with whatever was available and whatever could be mustered. The sentiment powering this aid effort was ‘these are our guests and we must help them in their time of need’.

In the true Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb spirit, members of the Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and other communities stepped out voluntarily and started helping pilgrims, providing them food, water and shelter.

Pathvinder Singh, a resident of Naini and a member of the Sikh community said that the Naini Gurudwara, Sangam, immediately opened the doors of the Gurudwara to pilgrims and started offering them refreshments. “Right from morning till late in the night, we distributed food, water, tea and snacks to the pilgrims. The next day we again started providing them all the help they needed,” he said.

Madhu Kesarwani, a housewife and a resident of Chowk, shared how her neighbourhood also banded together to serve food to weary pilgrims. “We distributed tea made from 60 litres of milk each day on January 29 and January 30 along with snacks, while others prepared meals like tehri for the pilgrims,” she said.

Members of the Muslim community and institutions including Imams of mosques also threw open Imambadas, mosques, madrasas, schools, colleges, shops and even houses to help hundreds of exhausted pilgrims.

Be it Muslim-dominated localities of Roshanbagh, Nakhas Kohna, Noorullah Road, Chowk vegetable market or areas near Sewai Mandi and the GT Road in Old City areas of Prayagraj, Muslim youths and men offering food, tea, water and even warm milk to children, day and night to passing waves of Hindu pilgrims.

People rushed to set up counters on tables in front of their houses and shops offering food and water to the pilgrims.

“Everybody rushed to do what they could to help the pilgrims rest and recover. Muslim women helped by men began cooking food even as others rushed to offer tea, water and refreshments,” said Raza Abbas Zaidi, a resident of Koft Grandtola locality and a primary teacher at the Yadgar E Hussaini Intermediate College, Nakhas Kohna.

“My college also opened its doors to the pilgrims and hundreds of tired pilgrims took shelter in it. Food and water besides pillows and mattresses were provided to them. This continued from January 29 night right till Friday afternoon when the last of the pilgrims, having regained strength, left,” said Mohd Mehndi Gauhar Kazmi, manager, Yadgar Hussaini Inter College.

He said that immediate arrangements were made at his college. “Nothing was pre-planned. Moved by the plight of people who are guests in our city and in need of help, we just acted. All classrooms, halls and even playgrounds of the college had thousands of people resting. We fed them Khichdi and ‘Matar Pulao’ cooked by local women. The last of the 6,000 to 7,000 odd people who stayed at the college left at 3pm on Friday,” he added.