By TCN Special Correspondent,
New Delhi: Fourth of its kind, the week-long communal harmony yatra led by famous Mahant of Ayodhya, Yugal Kishore Shastri ended on Monday evening after offering chador and prayer here at Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah. Some 25 yatris, who travelled around 490 kilometres in last seven days, prayed for peace, brotherhood and communal harmony in the country.
The yatra which started from Ayodhya on 11th October covered various places of Faizabad, Lucknow, Sitapur, Shahjahanpur and Moradabad before it reached Delhi on Sunday morning. Enroute , a number of public meeting and street meeting were organised to make mass contacts and spread the message peace and communal harmony. After reaching Delhi, the yatris paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi’s soul at Rajghat and a programme on Communal Harmony was organized at Gandhi Smiriti Bhawan, Raj Ghat. “The aim of the yatra was to create an atmosphere to abolish fascism, communalism and untouchability and to promote peace, unity and brotherhood among the people and in society,” said Shah Alam, a Delhi based peace activist.
Members of Communal Harmony Yatra offering prayer and chador at Nizamuddin Dargah on 17th Oct. 2011 in New Delhi
On Monday morning, a public meeting on Communal Harmony and Brotherhood was organized here at Gandhi Peace Foundation, which was addressed by Yugal Kishore Shahtri, Asghar Ali Engineer, Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Mohammmed Ahmad, Haneef Gandhi, Mazhar Hussain, Saroj Khan, and many others.
The speakers stressed on the urgent need for communal harmony and coming together to create an atmosphere of love and harmony to counter the politics and message of hatred and violence. They also stressed to revive the concept of Sajhi Virasat and Ganga-Janami Tahzeeb (shared culture). “We have to try for peace to counter the violence and for that the basis will be humanity,” said Yugal Kishore Shahtri while addressing the meeting.
The yatra was jointly organized by the Communalism Combat (Teesta Sitalvad), Viswa Yuva Sadbhavana Parishad (Seshnath Dubey), Asha Parivar ( Sandeep Pandey), Ayodhya ki Awaz (Yugal Kishor Saran Shastri), Milli Gazzete (Zafarul Islam Khan), Sarvdharam Sadbhav Kendra Trust (Zafar Saifullah), Confederation of Voluntary Association-Kova (Mazehar Hussain), Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (Mohammad Ahmad), Rastriya Yuva Sangathan (Kumar Prashant), Centre for study and Secularism-CCSS (Asagar Ali Engineer) and Centre for Human Rights and Social Welfare (Saroj Khan) and, others.