The hands that take aim with guns to shoot can also get stuck by Cupid’s arrow and take up the pen. Valentine’s Day claimed a new casualty this year — the state’s police force.

In a novel effort to celebrate the festival of love, the West Bengal Police Association, in collaboration with Lovers Organisation for Voluntary Exhibition (LOVE), organised a sit-and-write love letter competition at Bhowanipore on Saturday. Held at the police association’s central office opposite the Calcutta Police Hospital, it drew at least 40 people, including some policemen.

“The idea emerged last month and we started a campaign in city-based institutions and organisations by distributing handbills describing the details of the competition,” said Bimal Biswas, general secretary of the police association.

But it was not just a freewheeling expression of affection that the contest was looking to evoke. It required the participants to “write a love-letter to an AIDS patient, expressing your love for him or her”. The organisers selected the theme keeping an eye on poor awareness about AIDS. The participants were asked to write a letter within 200 words in both English and Bengali to an imaginary friend.

“We wanted to make people aware that love cannot be bought or sold. Our message was: don’t leave your partner alone even if he or she is suffering from AIDS,” said Rupak Manush, president of LOVE.

Around 2.30 pm, the competitors were seen busy giving vent to their Valentine thoughts on the first floor room of the association’s office.

Ashoke Aich, a state police constable, was penning his thoughts for Manashi, an imaginary friend, languishing in a hospital ward. “Ami jani tomar AIDS hoyechhe. Sob janar poreo ami tomar pashe thakte chai. (I know you are suffering from AIDS. Even then, I want to be with you),” Aich wrote.

Shampa Roy, 23, from Kankulia Road was determined to stay with her friend Pankaj Brahma, promising “not to leave you at any cost”.

The competition brought out much more than concern for the diseased. Many of the letter-writers lacked basic awareness about the disease itself.

Bijoy Aich, from Rajarhat, thought AIDS spread from dirty toilets. He berated his AIDS-victim friend Soma: Tomar uchit chhilo bathroomta porishkar rakha. Jodi eta korte, ei dinta ashto na (You should have kept the toilet clean. Had you done so, things would not have come to such a pass). Aich said he had picked up the information from neighbours.

Rupak, the organiser, felt there was a message for health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra. “I will send him these letters to show how the government has failed to make people aware of AIDS,” he said.