He demolished Babri that day; building mosques, spreading Islam today

News Network
December 6, 2017

Balbir Singh, an enthusiastic Shiv Sena leader from Panipat, was one of the prominent Karsevaks that furiously claimed majestic dome of the historic Babri Masjid raising the slogans of Jai Sri Ram on December 6, 1992. The only goal of his life was to see a glorious Ram Mandir on the Babri mosque land. 

But, today (December 6, 2017), he observed the 25th anniversary of the demolition of Babri mosque by repenting for his past actions and spreading the message of Islam among the non-Muslims.

Balbir Singh is one of the karsevaks that not only realised their crime, but also embraced Islam years ago. The same Balbir Singh is now popular as Mohammed Aamir, who spends most of his time by trying to convince non-Muslims why one should read Quran.

Singh’s transformation is all the more dramatic as he is known as the first karsevak on the dome to raze the Babri mosque for which he received a hero’s welcome as he returned to his home town, Panipat. Two bricks were carried back by him which are still kept in the Shiv Sena's office there.

However, the task of assassinating Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, a Muslim cleric in Deoband changed the course of Singh’s life. As per plan he reached Deoband.  But, after listening to the religious sermons of the Maulana, Singh confronted him not as an enemy but as someone "who had sinned against the house of God."

It was then he embraced Islam. But the conversion has not been easy. Today, Aamir, has left his home town Panipat far behind to settle in Hyderabad where he is married to a Muslim lady. In another twist of fate, Aamir also runs a school to spread the teachings of Islam.

Aamir and his fellow karsevak Yogendra Pal (who is now known as Mohammed Umar) have vowed to construct and renovate 100 mosques during their lifetime as repentance for what they had done. “So far we have managed 40,” says Aaamir.

It isn't just Balbir Singh or Yogendra Pal who played key role in Babri demolition and then embraced Islam. Many other karsevaks too are doing their best to exorcise the memories of shame and guilt. Shive Prasad, a former youth leader of the Bajrang Dal in Ayodhya, is one of them.

Prasad had given training to about 4,000 karsevaks and he and his team had actively participated in pulling down the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

Within a year after the demolition, Prasad went deep into depression, suffering bouts of hallucination, blaming himself for having committed an "unforgivable sin." Prasad visited psychiatrists, tantriks and saints but there was no peace in his mind. For the next five years, he lived the life of a recluse and in 1997, he went to Sharjah to seek employment. In 1999, he formally embraced Islam in Sharjah and became Mohammed Mustafa.

Mustafa’s journey towards atonement has not been easy. He has been ostracised by his family and the Sangh Parivar has threatened to kill him should he ever return to India. 

Comments

True Indian
 - 
Friday, 8 Dec 2017

In reply to by gabber

Angry mind will destroy your life and others life. Think cool and embrace Islam 

gabber
 - 
Thursday, 7 Dec 2017

Suvin

 

your name remembers the old sholay dialogue, " suar ka bacchee"

 

dont take serious, joking

 

Mohammed
 - 
Thursday, 7 Dec 2017

Dear Mr.Suvin,

 

Picture of the person produced go and enquire... even you will embrace islam... Islam never hate people but it   will make you love one another unlike karshevaks who killed so many people during 1992 and demolised one of the old Masjid...

suvin
 - 
Wednesday, 6 Dec 2017

ha ha funny story..... unable to belive 

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News Network
February 1,2020

Mangaluru, Feb 2: A video of a woman rescuing a dog from a well in Mangaluru has gone viral on social media. The dog fell inside the well accidentally and the woman rushed to the spot to rescue it. The two minute seven second video has been shared on Twitter by a user, Mauna, and has ever since been viewed over 15,000 times.

The woman climbed down the well as other people attached a rope to her body during the rescue mission. Another rope was then thrown to her and she tied it around the dog after which it was pulled outside. The woman, thereafter, climbed outside the well with much difficulty.

"Bless the lady who saved the Dog," the user captioned the post.

Watch the video here:

 

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News Network
April 4,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 4: As calamity struck the nation in the form of coronavirus, many philanthropists have generously opened their wallets to sustain the urban poor, especially the migrant labourers in the city and elsewhere in Karnataka.

These individuals either directly or through organisations opened up their kitchens to ensure that no one goes to bed hungry in this distressing time.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the nodal agency to feed urban poor, responded positively to requests by these organisations and individuals to supply food to the needy on their behalf.

"We had been serving food through our Indira canteens, which we continue to do even now. However, many philanthropists and corporates have come forward to feed the needy," the BBMP joint commissioner Sarfaraz Khan told reporters.

According to BBMP, Indira canteens used to provide two lakh meals a day on normal occasions.

However, since the lockdown has been clamped, the number swelled by almost 50 per cent.

"On Thursday alone, we served 2.85 lakh food, which comprises breakfast, lunch and breakfast," a Palike officer said.

The major aid came from Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO) and Azim Premji Foundation.

While JITO is feeding around 22,000 people, Azim Premji Foundation is taking care of 20,000 people.

Sajjanraj Mehta, an office bearer of JITO, told reporters that his organisation has been providing packaged cooked food since March 27.

"We got in touch with Bengaluru Mayor M Gautham Kumar, Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao and the BBMP commissioner B H Anil Kumar. According to their list, 27,000 food packets were required daily," Mehta told.

The JITO members have arranged vehicles of their respective businesses to transport food packets to different locations as part of the campaign named as 'COVID-19 manav seva'.

The organisation has also decided to utilise the kitchen of Princess Golf, a marriage hall on Palace Grounds here to prepare food.

Palike officials said on Thursday alone JITO supplied 53,000 meals.

"We asked them to cover migrant labourers in those areas where Indira Canteen could not reach. We mapped the cluster and provided them info. Now, they are distributing it there," they said.

Another organisation engaged in charitable work is ISKCON Bengaluru.

Ever since the lockdown, it has been working in various parts of India providing food to various people.

"We are providing materials such as rice, wheat flour, Daal, oil, vegetables with long shelf life, salt, sugar and spices. Each packet can sustain for at least 21 days," Madhu Pandit Dasa, president of ISKCON Bengaluru.

The organisation has set a target to cover at least two lakh people but so far it has reached out to 30,000 people including 25,000 in Bengaluru alone.

"We are feeding about 50,000 people in Delhi, with the Telangana government we are feeding about 40,000 people in Hyderabad, about 10,000 people in Ahmedabad in association with the Gujarat government," Dasa told.

According to BBMP, other organisations providing food to the needy are KMFY, TVS Group, Vimal Bhandari, Radisson Blue Atria Hotel, Hitech Ecowood, Mohammed Shajid, Prestige Group.

Wipro Ltd also pitched in to feed the poor by opening up its industrial kitchen infrastructure.

In a statement, Global Head- Operations of the company Hariprasad Hegde said the humanitarian crisis we are faced with as part of the Covid-19 crisis has multiple dimensions to it, of which the need to deliver cooked meals to the stranded migrant workers and other vulnerable communities is probably the most critical and immediate one.

Recognising this, Wipro has decided to use the industrial kitchen infrastructure in our facilities to provide cooked meals, he said.

This kicked off on April 2 with the delivery of 43,000 meals from our Bangalore facility in Kodathi to the government.

"We have made use of our own procurement logistics to source the food provisions. This is a collaborative process, with the government taking responsibility for the logistics of last mile delivery to the communities that need it the most,” he said.

In the case of Bangalore, the Karnataka government has come forward to provide this kind of complementary delivery support. We are reaching out to other state governments and local administrations for similar efforts." he said.

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News Network
July 14,2020

Bengaluru, July 14: Ahead of the week-long lockdown in Bengaluru starting from Tuesday night, around 35,000 people have left the city and grocery stores and liquor shops are witnessing a rush with customers thronging to stock up on for the shutdown.

According to transport department officials, labourers from other parts of the state migrated in good numbers from Bengaluru ahead of the lockdown fearing that they would have to face similar challenges as they had to confront during the previous shuttering. 

"Yesterday 35,000 passengers left Bengaluru. The number is big given the fact that we are allowing a limited number of passengers in the buses to maintain social distancing," a KSRTC official said.

Tipplers made a beeline for liquor shops and a senior State Excise official said liquor worth Rs 230 crore was sold on Monday alone.

"There was apparently a mad rush yesterday.India Made Foreign Liquor worth Rs 215.55 crore and 14.83 crore worth beer was sold...," the officer said.

In view of the rising coronavirus cases in the city at an alarming proportion, the government decided to impose lockdown from Tuesday 8 pm till 5 am on July 22.

Later, Dharwad and Dakshina Kannada districts too decided to impose a lockdown for nine days and seven days respectively from Wednesday.

"For the past two days there is an unusual rush of customers in our store," an executive of the Metro Cash and Carry said.

According to him, people are buying grocery items and vegetables with long shelf life such as onion, potato, radish, carrot and beetroot.

A salesperson at the Star Bazaar too said people were thronging the store for the past two to three days.

During the Sunday curfew, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the week-long lockdown will be stringent one and government has made all arrangements to address all concerns ahead of the shutdown.

As many as 19,702 people in Bengaluru have tested positive, of which there are 15,052 active cases, while 4,328 have been discharged.

The number of fatalities as of Monday is 321.

Across Karnataka, 41,581 people have tested positive for coronavirus including 24,572 active cases, 16,248 discharges and 757 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in the state.
 

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