About 300 Muslims from a north Calcutta neighbourhood worked in shifts to volunteer outside Durga Puja pandals in the area and help police manage crowds and traffic from Sashthi till Friday.
Members of the Belgachhia Aman Committee also set up a camp at the Belgachhia Tram Depot crossing from where they made announcements, gave directions to Puja pandals and helped visitors with any help they sought. There were smaller teams that toured the pandals, spoke to the Puja organisers if they needed any help and managed traffic.
“Set up in 1985, the committee’s professed objective is to maintain peace and communal harmony,” said Shaukat Ali, its general secretary. Ali said that even a small incident can flare up and destroy the communal fabric of the area and the committee works through the year to prevent that.“We have been setting up camps during Durga Puja for several years. We try to help out people who visit our area. We try to ensure there is no untoward incident during the Puja, which is why our volunteers visit the pandals and ask the organisers whether they need any help,” said Ali, a retired schoolteacher.
An overwhelming majority of the members are Muslims, said Haji Wasim Khan, the assistant secretary of the committee. Most members and volunteers of the Committee are drawn from and around the Belgachhiabustee, a Muslim-majority area. The neighbourhood has a mixed population.
A little north to the Belgachhia bustee is Kundu Lane and Tallah both are Hindu-majority areas.The police, too, lend its support to the Committee and also seek its help. An officer of Ultadanga police station said that the committee’s volunteers did a fantastic job in working alongside police during the Puja days. On Vijaya Dashami, the Committee members distributes weets.
In reciprocation, the Hindus of the area distribute sweets to their Muslim neighbours on Id, said Prasun Kumar Ghosh, a doctor who lives in the area and also the vice-chairman of Belgachhia Kendriya Sarbojonin Durgotsab Committee. Jamal Ahmed, 43, volunteered on Ashtami and Dashami. “People know us and trust us. Our mere presence is comforting to many,” he said. Belgachhia Aman Committee was set up at a time frequent clashes between rival gangs were routine. Gradually such clashes stopped.