SOLIDARITY VIGIL FOR HYDERABAD VICTIMS

PRESS RELEASE: 23 FEB DILLI HAAT SOLIDARITY VIGIL FOR HYDERABAD VICTIMS

In solidarity with the Hyderabad blast victims, a group of youth organized a solidarity vigil at 6 PM, at Dilli Haat, New Delhi. The Vigil was organized by several organizations - Mission Bhartiyam, ANHAD, Buniyaad – Ek Behatar Kal ki, AFDWOSE, Ayodhya Ki Awaaz, STEP, Yuva Koshish, Awam Ka Cinema and SAMAR, to spread the words of peace and harmony and to express solidarity with the victims.

A Joint statement issued earlier stated "We choose Dilli Haat rather than any religious or historical symbol and will gather here to spread the message that we all are bonded together with the bond of humanity. Even if we are diversified in religion, caste, culture, region etc, we are together and this is very required for our harmonious society as well as for humanity by and large.”  

Ravi Nitesh, Founder of Mission Bhartiyam, remarked, “It is an unfortunate and inhuman act by some cowards. Today, we gather here to show them that we are unaffected by their cowardly acts to spread hatred and the attempt to divide the society.” He also pointed out that people on social media has also spread messages of solidarity through post shares and retweets, re-iterating this fact. 

Tanveer Hussain Khan of ANHAD who had joined here with some people from J&K remarked that, "We all are connected with bonds and any such act must not weaken our bonding and we all have to reply them with our unity."

They had tagged slogans on their shirt that displayed message of peace, non violence, unity and harmony. One Slogan was 'Naa Rok Paayenge Humko Ye Bamon Ke Hamle, Hum Insaniyat ke hain tarafdaar badhte hi rahenge". They sung songs of peace and harmony. "Mai Tumko Vishwaas Dun, Tum Mujhko Vishwaas Do, Shankaon ke Saagar Ham Langh Jayenge, Es Dhartee ko milkar Swarg banayenge" sanctified the air. 

They had lighted candles in the memory of the victims.  Many people who were on their way to visit Dilli Haat or were coming out had also joined in to offer their solidarity with victims of Hyderabad Blast.

Sulabh Srivastava, an engineer by profession and a core member of Mission Bhartiyam, remarked, “They have snatched away someone’s happiness, someone’s hope again. They can’t be humans.”

Shadab Bashar from Buniyaad Ek Behtar Kal Ki added that we all gathered here and you can see that people from all religion are here in solidarity with Hyderabad, those who are behind the inhumane act of blast must see that we are together against it.  

Shariq Naqvi of Awam Ka Cinema remarked, “They are enemies of humanity. They do not belong to any religion, any region and not even to humankind.”

The crowd was diverse in every respect. Different religions, castes, regions and walks of life had joined in to express their solidarity. There was a little boy, with a polish brush and a shoe in his hand, and a very keen ear. He stood there in the entire programme. There was no difference...every eye showed a sense of empathy and pain. 

“We cannot bring back the innocent lives but we pray for their souls. We pray for the relatives of the deceased.” said by a passerby who was there to visit Dilli Haat and had joined in.

“As a tribute to them, we also take the pledge that we will work to unite the society. We must promise that we will not accuse any one community, we will not discriminate against any community because even  though this is not the work of any one community, they, unfortunately, take the shelter of this to  spread hatred, for their own vested interests. We will be united and will not let them degrade any community by their acts", said Zaheeb Ajmal of SAMAR. 

There were also people from Jammu and Kashmir and North East which witnesses such acts on a regular scale. 

Bhavan Metei from Manipur said that we all are here to oppose terrorism. He said that "people of North East are in solidarity with Hyderabad and we are deeply concern about the rising inhumanity."

There were people from Kashmir. One of them spoke about the everyday torture in Jammu and Kashmir and North East India. He spoke about the Kunan Poshpora incident of Kashmir wherein about 100 women were brutally raped by men in uniform. He spoke about the need to work together to root out violence and inhumanity.

Prashant Nautiyal, an architect by profession and a member of Mission Bhartiyam, also pointed out the fear that this case, like other such cases, may not see a fair trial and may see some youths of a particular community being falsely implicated. He said that this is because of our stereotypes. We need to change our mindsets. 

Many youths joined there that includes Maaz Khaan from AFDWOSE, Soumya Prakash from a poetry group The Attic, Pankaj Pathak from AIIMS, Sandeep Mishra who is an advocate in Supreme Court, Abhishek Shukla, and many others from diverse backgrounds but dedicated to the cause of humanity.