On Saturday, residents of Mumbra near Mumbai, observed bandh to condemn the Pulwama attack on CRPF jawans. The residents wholeheartedly supported this all-party bandh and did not mind the inconvenience they had to go through to reach their workplace.
Everyday Ajaz Sheikh, 41, a resident of Tanveer complex in Kausa, Mumbra leaves his home at 9 am and reaches his office in Thane by 10 am. But today, when Ajaz stepped out of his house, he did not find any rickshaws to ferry him to the station. “I learned that Mumbra is shut today and had to walk all the way to Mumbra station,” he said. Ajaz did not mind walking the extra mile on Saturday “We stand together with the family of the martyred soldiers in this hour of grief. And it is okay to be inconvenienced for a day for such a great cause,” he added.
Similarly, Parvez Abdul Hafiz Ansari, 35 from M M Valley, Mumbra reached his Goregaon office at 12.15 pm instead of the usual 10 am. “Today the roads were full with people but there were no rickshaws. And the buses were jam-packed and I had to walk to station,” said Parvez. “But we support the bandh to express our solidarity towards our country".
The bandh (shutdown) was for 12 hours from 6am to 6pm and was called by all political parties in Mumbra. “The Pulwama attack was not on our soldiers but on our country. And we are ready to fight for our country if the government asks us to,” said Ayaz Babu Shaikh, Mumbra block president, AIMIM (All India Majleese-ittehadul-Muslimeen). “For the last four years the government have been talking about how well prepared they are to protect the country. But this attack showed that the terrorists can get into our territory and beat us,” he added.
