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Gujarat: Muslims rush to the aid of Hindu neighbors after flood
8-09-2017
AHMEDABAD: In times of death and destruction, the lotus of communal harmony has bloomed even in the muck of flood-ravaged Dhanera in Banaskantha, a district which has lost 64 lives and is still counting its dead.
In this Hindu-dominated town, some 3,500 Muslims from Dhanera, Deesa, Palanpur and nearby villages trooped in to the aid of the town, cleaning places of worship and residence alike, after waters started receding slowly. The town was submerged under 10ft of flood waters that coursed its way through thousands of homes, leaving behind a trail of destruction, tonnes of earth, sand and scare of an epidemic.
Their first mission was to remove muck from 22 temples and three major mosques in Dhanera town. “In this difficult hour, we felt that people needed hope and spiritual support to help them pull back their lives. This is why we began cleaning the temples first with the help of locals. Floods have brought each one of us together,” says Mohammed Rafiq Memon of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind.
The volunteers under the aegis of JUH cleaned some major temples in Dhanera like the Ganapati, Hanuman, Satimata, Lilashah and Ashapura Mata temples in the first two days itself with the help of a few locals.
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