CJP Condemns Blasts - Appeals for Assistance for Victims.....July 28, 2008

 

The CJP appeals to all citizens, organisations and corporate groups to donate generously to our relief effort in Gujarat. Daily wage earners, rickshawpullers, sweepers frm the Valmiki community, innocent children of barbers and vendors lie injured in hospital with each day from work, also a day of hunger and deprivation for the rest of their families.
Financial aid to them will be CJP's first priority. Secretary CJP, Teesta Setalvad and trustee, Rahul Bose visited Ahmedabad on Sunday and personally recorded details of the victims.

 

Children, women and men have also faced great trauma. We hope to be able to work with the victims on a long term basis to assist them out of the irreparable loss they have suffered apart from in the immediate, lending assistance for those injured who are faced with the loss of daily wages.
 
Please donate generously to the Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai. Send queries to sabrang@vsnl.com and cjpindia@gmail.com. The CJP is a registered body with tax exemptions under section 80 G of the Income Tax Act. Cheques and contributions ca be made out to Citizens for Justice and Peace and posted to Nirant, Juhu Tara Road, Mumbai 400049.

 

The CJP is in touch with Hospital Staff and Victim Families directly. For instance, our visit on Sunday has got the direct contact numbers of such families. These will be completed and collated by tomorrow mid-day.(July 29, 2008) In about three days our database will be complete and we will revert to any and all of you interested in funding with full details including photographs. Please understand that our visit yesterday was fraught and hurried, victims were in pain and hence some details are incomplete. We have mobile numbers of the victims. CJP will ensure full transparency in this relief effort as we did after the carnage of 2002, the flood in Mumbai in 2005 and the Mumbai Blasts of 2006. (Even the Gujarat Government/Collectorate has not uplinked any victim or survivor details yet)

 

The CJP also collected details of the injured victims from the Civil and LG Hospitals and these too will be added to the data base as soon as possible.

 

For example

 

Ø  Pradeepbhai and Jayeshbhai, both at the VS Hospital with over 90 per cent burns are serious and in a critical condition.

 

Ø  Naineshbhai Dalal, Khadia in the OICU of VS Hospital is very serious. He has a shrapnel lodged inside the wall of the heart. He has been operated upon but is critical

 

Ø  All the injured blast victims at Ward Number 6 (Male Surgical) at the VS Hosptal are in need of assistance. For example,

 

Ø  Bed 17—Chaganbhai

 

Ø  Bed 20—Madanbhai Vanjara

 

Ø  Dineshbhai   --very poor

 

Ø  Bed 30-Babubhai Pochabhai (He has lost hearing in both ears, is a sweeper and suffered as he was in the fateful bus number 150, which explosion resulted two persons loosing their lives. He lives in the Valmiki Vyas).

 

Ø  Babu (Ishrar Mohammad). Six year old Ishrat is severely injured with shrapnel in his head, unconscious with serious head injuries. His mother Sugrabi is also serious in the same hospital. His father is Jaleel Ahmed a barber from the Ramol area. 
 

All patients in the Post Operative Ward at the VS Hospital are serious.

 

Ø      Bhavnabehn (very serious but stable)

 

Ø      Rajubhai

 

Ø      Mukeshbhai

 

Ø      Naineshbhai Dalal, Khadia in the OICU from VS Hospital very serious he has a shrapnel lodged inside the wall of the heart..operated upon but critical

 

 
 

 

Teesta Setalvad,
Secretary

 

 

 

Trustees: IM Kadri (Vice-President), Arvind Krishnaswamy (Treassurer), Anil Dharker (writer), Alyque Padamsee (communications expert), Cyrus Guzder (corporate leader), Ghulam Pesh Imam (businessman), Javed Anand (writer and social activist), Javed Akhtar (poet and script writer), Nandan Maluste (financial consultant), Rahul Bose (actor), Cedric Prakash (social activist), Teesta Setalvad (journalist and social activist)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 28, 2008

 

Press Release

 

CJP Condemns Blasts

 

 

 

The serial blasts in Ahmedabad, targeting innocent lives are dastardly acts of terror that have wrecked human lives and also generated terror and fear among ordinary citizens. The CJP unequivocally condemns them and demands that the actual culprits, after fair investigation, are punished. The targeting of busy market places and worst of all, hospitals, where the sick and injured come for medical aid exposes the vicious and cynical mind of the terrorist. The CJP also condemns the blasts the day before in Bangalore that has led to the unfortunate situation that professionals need to be provided security.

 

The staff and doctors of all Ahmedabad's Hospitals, the Civil Hospital, the LG Hospital, the VS Hospital and Rajasthan Hospital need to be saluted for the singular hard work they have put in to save lives and achieve a sense of normalcy in the wards.

 

Two members of the Citizens for Justice and Peace, its secretary, Teesta Setalvad accompanied by Rahul Bose visited the city, met the victims in visits to all hospitals and also visited the blast sites. A detailed list of names of the injured has been collated by CJP so as to enable immediate relief, especially for the daily bread winners from Ahmedabad. This list will be made available to all who are interested with photographs.

 

The atmosphere in both  Ahmedabad, the rest of Gujarat and the country (after the Bangalore blasts) is fragile and therefore the need to maintain calm and project voices of reason. The need of the hour is dialogue between communities and individuals as the sinister aim of the terrorist is to create hatreds and suspicions between communities. Moreover all investigations into the terror attacks should be transparent accountable. Terrorism and terror attacks should not become the subject of irresponsible politicisation. To combat terror we must stand firm, calm and united.

 

The need of the hour is immediate peace and communal harmony….social activists and political leaders must move among the people, speak to the victims, help ease the trauma and above all ensure that no cheap political gain is made out of this tragedy. In  Varanasi (Kashi) that saw blasts at the Sankat Mochan temple in March 2006, the active presence of silent street and mohalla committees who worked 24 hours, to dispel any suspicion and panic, to the scores of religious organisations, notably those from the Muslim minority who stepped forward,  spontaneously and unequivocally,  to condemn the heinous acts and offer help and sympathy to the victims, it was the ordinary people of this ancient and historic place of pilgrimage that typifies India's Ganga-Jamuna culture, who then emerged the victors against terror. Ahmedabad maintained calm, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We must now ensure that lasting peace is built on this calm and this city that has seen bitterness, violence and division builds bridges out of the tragedy.