Responsible citizens of Haridwar once again put brotherhood over religion

Epitome of peace: P.S. Chauhan

The holy district of Haridwar, a unique blend of diverse religious traditions. With the world famous Har-ki-Pauri, the centre of Hindu pilgrimage, on the one side and the renowned Dargah of the Sufi saint, Sabir Saheb at Piran Kaliyar on the other wide, disseminated, as usual, the message of communal harmony and peace, unity and brotherhood in the aftermath of the historic verdict on the Ayodhya dispute by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. Since the sant community at Haridwar has always been in the forefront of the Ram temple movement and most of the crucial decisions about the construction of the temple by the Marg Darshak Mandal (steering committee) were taken at Haridwar, the decision was awaited here with bated breath by all the segments of society.

Though the district has no history of violent communal disturbances on large scale, in the run-up to the long awaited decision, the district administration did not take any chance and made elaborate security arrangements, specially considering the fact that the district has common borders with Bijnor, Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts of U.P., which are highly prone to communal violence. As a precautionary measure section 144 was promulgated throughout the district and all the educational institutions were closed for two days. To instil confidence in the public, the police staged a flag march through the sensitive areas in the district. The district magistrate, Dr. R. Meenakshi Sundaram and the S.S.P., Sanjay Gunjyal did commendable job in spreading the message of maintaining law and order, peace and tranquility by organising interactive meetings with different sections of society, including the Akhara parishad, the minorities, the Vyapar mandal, the Ganga Sabha and the media.

In a unique initiative, the Press Club Haridwar, the apex body of the print media and the electronic media of the district, held a Peace March throughout the city. Besides the journalists and the top officials of the civil and the police administration,