Jaipur blasts

‘Terror fails to rip secular fabric’ Muslim Leaders Condemn Blasts, Seek CBI Probe P J Joychen

If terrorists behind the serial blasts in Jaipur wanted to create communal disaffection and take casualties by planting bombs at crowded places, including places of worship, they have only partly succeeded.

What the serial blasts did instead was to trigger a wave of humanism among those who survived at the blast sites and send Muslims to aid Hindus and vice versa. Take Afrar Khan, who within minutes of the blast, was soaked in blood. Not his own, but of those injured at the Hanuman temple attack. He was one of the first among the volunteers to reach the SMS Medical College with the injured. Till dawn, he helped police ferry people to hospitals. “I got about 50 injured to hospital,’’ he told TOI.

Another youth Niraj said, “I was sitting at the nearby liquor shop when the blast took place at Sanganeri Gate. I rushed to the spot where a dozen people, including women, were lying in a pool of blood.’’ He rushed them to the SMS Hospital in autorickshaws and hailed ambulances.

Muslim leaders in Jaipur have condemned the attack. Jamait-I-Islami Hind president Mohamad Salim called it “highly condemnable’’ and an attack on humanity. Quazi Khalid Usmani, the chief cleric of Rajasthan, demanded a CBI probe so that the Muslim community isn’t blamed for the attacks. “Devils masquerading as human beings have done it. No Rajasthani can commit such an act; it’s a handiwork of foreign elements.’’

Mahant Sri Narayan Sharma of the Hanuman Mandir in Sanganeri Gate said, “Terrorists want to disturb the social fabric of society. Fortunately, people see through their game and don’t fall prey to it.’’