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Amid lockdown, CRPF comes to the rescue of Rajouri man cycling from Mumbai to see ailing father
Mohammad Arif had begun cycling from Mumbai on Thursday to reach his village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) worked in close coordination in four states and a union territory in a life-saving operation to airlift an ailing 50-year-old man from Rajouri to Jammu and then transfer him to Chandigarh on Monday while it simultaneously traced his son who was cycling from Mumbai to reach his father.
Wazir Hussain had suffered a brain stroke last Tuesday. The family then informed his son Mohammad Arif who works in Mumbai’s Bandra (West) area as a security guard.
By Monday evening, Hussain had been moved from Jammu to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Chandigarh for advanced treatment after he had been evacuated from Rajouri on Sunday.
“The CRPF has also tracked his 30-year-old son Mohammed Arif near Jodhpur in Rajasthan and he will also be ferried by us to Chandigarh,” said CRPF’s Jammu sector spokesperson and deputy commandant Shivnandan Singh said earlier in the day.
With transportation snapped because of the lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus, Arif had embarked on a gruelling 2100 km long journey on a bicycle with Rs 600 in his pocket on Thursday.
“CRPF Madadgaar helpline reached out to this man in distress. His father Wazir Hussain was airlifted in a Pawan Hans chopper from Rajouri to Jammu on Sunday before being sent to Chandigarh through road,” said Singh.
“The CRPF units worked in close coordination in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to help this family, the officer said.
Arif was in Gujarat when the CRPF tracked him down.
“We tracked Arif in Gujarat through 100 Rapid Action Force of the CRPF in Ahmedabad and gave him sanitizers and food. Thereafter, we tied up with civil police and arranged a vehicle for him. He is nearing Jodhpur now. From Jodhpur, CRPF will make further arrangements to ferry him to Chandigarh,” said the official.
In Arif’s native village Panjgrain in Rajouri district, CRPF’s 72 battalion doctors visited his ailing father and shifted him to Rajouri district hospital from where he was airlifted to Jammu on Sunday.
He was referred for treatment in Chandigarh on Monday in view of his condition.
Two doctors of the CRPF and his nephew accompanied Wazir Hussain to Chandigarh. “We pray he gets well and all hard toil of this young man is rewarded,” Singh said.
However, senior officials in the establishment said that coming from Maharashtra makes Arif a potential case of coronavirus and 14-day quarantine would be essential for him.
