The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) came to the rescue of a man who started a 2,100-km cycle journey from Mumbai to meet his ailing father in Jammu amid the nationwide lockdown.
Last Tuesday, 50-year-old Wazir Hussain had suffered a brain stroke, following which the family informed his son Mohammad Arif who works as a security guard in Bandra (West) area in Mumbai. With no means of transport amid the nationwide lockdown, Arif then set off for Rajouri on a bicycle on April 2.
When CRPF’s Kashmir-based helpline ‘madadgaar’ came to know about Arif’s plight, they decided to help the father-son duo. Working in close coordination in four states and a union territory, CRPF’s 72 battalion doctors visited Hussain on Sunday and shifted him to Rajouri district hospital. From there he was airlifted to Jammu. He was then moved to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Chandigarh for advanced treatment by Monday evening.
Simultaneously, they tracked Arif who had set off on a cycle to meet his father.
“The CRPF units worked in close coordination in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to help this family,” Singh added.
When the CRPF tracked Arif, he had reached Gujarat. They tracked him in Gujarat through 100 Rapid Action Force of the CRPF in Ahmedabad and provided him with 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,” Singh said.