By Abdulhafiz Lakhani New Delhi
Ankit-Junaid Social Harmony Fellowship & Award was awarded to two students; one Nida Akram from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and the second one Kartik Dora is from Delhi University (DU).
The award was started by the followers of Frontier Gandhi’s Khudai Khidmatgar last year in September in the memory of Hafiz Junaid who was killed by a mob in a train and Ankit Saxena, who was killed by a Muslim family for having love affairs with their daughter.
“The objective of this scholarship is to nurture the seeds of communal harmony among the youths who will become a part of the mainstream in the future. As we all know, it’s the youth who are the torch-bearers of the society, so it’s very important to promote the brotherhood and communal harmony for a better society,” said Ms. Nabeela Siddiqui, National organiser of Khudai Khidmatgar.
Akram and Dora are honored for their humanitarian works in the society and their campuses. The jury selected these two candidates after scrutinizing hundreds of nominations.The award will carry a memento, certificate and a cash of Rs 5,000.
Nida Akram, who is pursuing her post-graduation from Aligarh Muslim University was elected as the Vice President of Abdullah College Girls Students’ Union, AMU for the session 2017-2018. As the V-P of the Students’ Union, Nida organised donation drives for relief work, workshops and seminar on communal harmony and peace-building.
Dora is the 2nd year law student from Delhi University. He hails from Odisha. He is the champion of human rights and adherent believer of the constitutional values, working with the under-privileged children settled at the outskirts of North Delhi. Also, he is involved in the process of secularisation and de-communalising the youth through personal meetings.
“Moreover, we need to develop creative and innovative methods of peace-building in the society which will help in cementing the gaps between the communities. Therefore, this fellowship also aims at bringing fraternity and unity in the society,” said Faisal Khan, convenor, Khudai Khidmatgar group explaining the aims of the award.
The killing of 17-year-old Hafiz Junaid by a mob in Mathura train set off a lot of outrage across the country in June 2017. Similarly, the murder of Ankit Saxena had also become the topic of national discourse. Both the incidents disturbed the communal harmony of the society.
The awardee received the award from Syed Tehseen Ahmed (co-founder of Rahnuma Foundation) , Dr. Nasreen Begum (BDKMV, Agra) , Ms. Sameera Ahmed (NRC, Khudai Khidmatgar), Mr. Faisal Khan (Khudai Khidmatgar), Mr. Javed Hussain Khan (Grandson of former President Zakir Hussain), Mr. Asif Azeem (U.S.A).
Mr. Sahil Ahmed (Organiser, Khudai Khidmatgar) highlighted the mission and vision ahead and Mr. Rizwan Khan (Organiser, Khudai Khidmatgar) gave the vote of thanks.
