Last Monday's Manchester bombing has changed the very outlook of this country, where people though defiant against terrorism and united against such horrors, are panicked about the fragility of their life. All over the country, security has become extremely tight, with shopping centres having long airport style checks, before people are allowed in. Though the 22 dead do not include any Asian names, there was an Indian origin doctor who escaped the blast by few minutes.
Sonal Pathak, a 41 year old doctor from Liverpool, and her 13-year-old daughter Shreya and friend Anya made a narrow and almost providential escape from the Manchester massacre.
She had parked her car about 7 mins away from the arena and left slightly early before Ariana Grande's 3rd last song to avoid the rush after the event concluded.
On the way out, she saw ambulances rushing in but couldn't tell why until they got home by 11pm and got the tragic news. They started walking out at about at 10:20pm and passed the foyer around 10:23pm- the exact spot where the blast took place. They hurried as the 3 hour parking ticket was running out and they had about an eight miles drive back to Altrincham.
Since the parking was two storeys underground, Pathak, who is originally from Jaipur, couldn't hear any explosion nor see any commotion. On the way out she did witness ambulances rushing in, but only realised what had actually happened when she reached home at 11pm and got the tragic news.
Community in solidarity helping victims
A vascular surgeon Tawqueer Rashid, was woken up by a telephone call from his hospital and was called in. The 44-year-old works at Manchester Royal Infirmary but was told to go instead to Salford Royal Hospital at 1am because it did not have any surgeons with his specialism. He helped with an operation on a woman whose blood flow to the foot was cut off due to the bombing, and in the morning he saw a patient with a spinal injury and damaged blood vessels.
Third generation British Pakistani Sam Arshad, 35, who owns Street Cars Manchester, said that all the taxis in her firm offered free lifts all night. The phones were going crazy, with panicked parents and children who wanted to get out of there. Arshad contacted his drivers and decided they should take passengers home without charge. The firm employs 600 drivers of a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds including Pakistani, Indians and of all faiths, including Muslims.
Bukhara restaurant, that is half a mile from Manchester Arena that night witnessed two women walked in as the restaurant was closing. They were distressed and were given water. Zaffer Khan, who does marketing for the restaurant reportedly said, “They weren’t aware of what had happened, and neither was the proprietor. He only realised on his way home, listening to the radio. The following day we had a quick discussion and decided what we would do.” The restaurant also gave out food- a chicken biryani- to the emergency service workers.
Othman Moqbel, chief executive of the Muslim charity Human Appeal, has launched an appeal for the victims and their families. It has raised almost £15,000.
Sikh temples in Manchester offered shelter to those affected by the bombing. The four nearby Gurdwaras—Sri Guru Gobind Singh Gurdwara Educational and Cultural Centre, Gurdwara Sri Guru Harkrisham Sahib, Dasmesh Sikh Temple and Central Gurdwara Manchester Gurudwaras—all kept their doors open for victims through the night.
There are also reports that a hotel near the venue took in dozens of children to keep them safe. Taxi drivers, including Asians, have been offering people free rides home and volunteers were arranging to give blood at donor banks to help those injured.
An Indian origin taxi driver who drove scores of injured to the hospital on the night of the Manchester terror attack told Channel 4 News: “I’ve had people who needed to find loved ones, I dropped them to the hospital, they’ve not had any money, they’ve been stranded, there’s no transport.
“We should, you know, come out and show whoever has done this that it doesn’t matter because we’re glue and we stick together when it counts.”
24-year-old AJ Singh, who was born in Manchester. His family comes from Punjab, and he drove more than 15 wounded to the Manchester Royal Infirmary and Salford Royal Foundation Trust, absolutely free of charge on the fateful night.
Singh who believes that 'he isn't a hero' drove straight into the city centre on the night of the attacks at 11pm to see how he could help. He delivered food and water to family and friends of the victims in hospital ever since.
He did not charge people and put up a sign on his car saying 'Free Taxis'. People who did not have money or a phone – he also helped them with a phone to call home or took them to hotels, which offered rooms for free of cost. Singh believed this was a part of his duty as a true Sikh.
80 to 90 people took refuge in the Gurdwara Sri Guru Harkrishan Sahib which is very close to the Arena, the site of the attack. The priest called other members of the Gurdwara to come and help him, when he saw the panic. They offered water or a cup of tea to people and langars of rice, dal and chapati to those who went hungry.
A minute of silence was observed at St Anne's Square and a vigil was held where thousands had gathered to pay tribute to those lives lost and hurt. The Queen visited the victims in the hospital and police carried on a series of raids, and well-wishers have also been seen laying floral tributes, candles, teddy bears and messages of support across the city to remember those killed and injured.
A fund set up by the M.E.N. to help the families of those affected has already passed the £1,000,000 mark, with celebrities around the world sharing the appeal.
Homeless men helped victims
Two homeless men begging at the Manchester Arena as the suicide attack went off have been praised after helping the victims in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Chris Parker, 33, had been begging in the arena foyer where suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his device killing 22. Amid the chaos as people began to leave the concert he came forward to help people who were hurt.
Stephen Jones, 35, who had been sleeping near the arena also ran to help deal with the gruesome aftermath. Jones, a former bricklayer who has been sleeping on the street for more than a year, recalled wiping blood from children’s eyes after dashing to help and pulled out nails of their arms and a couple out of a little girl’s face. Jones said it was “just instinct” to help.
West Ham Football club co-owner David Sullivan has promised to give Steve, who aided victims of the Manchester terror attack a "life-changing"offer to help him "get back on his feet". Mr Sullivan told BBC Radio 5 Live he wants to help the 'hero' by paying for his accommodation for six months and some money to help him turn his life around, as a thank you gesture.
Muslims fear backlash
Not only lives have been lost, and people police are making many more arrests with terror connections, but this attack has put many important questions forward, including how Britain will cope with its local bred terrorists who are dangerous, ruthless and brainwashed by fundamentalists, and growing within the state like cancer. It also raises questions about integration of the Muslim community in the UK and the consequences they face due to a small minority's brutal actions.
On last Tuesday, members from the Ahmadiyya Muslim community were seen standing with a poster at a vigil that read, “Love for all, hatred for none” and “Promoting peace and harmony in society”. The Muslims or even in that case, anyone who is 'brown' and living in the UK, is not wrong to anticipate a backlash and fear for their safety in the current scenario.
Infact a hero surgeon who battled to help the Manchester terror victims for 48 hours was racially abused and branded a terrorist on his drive back to work. Naveed Yasin told the Sunday Times a white middle-aged van driver wound down his window and hurled the racist slurs as he drove to Salford Royal Hospital to continue treating the victims.
The man screamed: "You brown, P*** b******.
"Go back to your country, you terrorist. We don't want you people here. F*** off."
The Evening Standard reported that the shocked Mr Yasin said his own daughter could have been caught up in the Manchester Arena concert bombing that killed 22, as she had wanted to see Ariana Grande.
He spent a hectic first 48-hours after the blast treating the injured but was hit with the torrent of abuse as he drove back to work the next day.
The surgeon, who grew up just 30 miles away in Keighley, West Yorkshire, said he was taken aback by the hatred.
But he told the newspaper: "Manchester is better than this.
Didsbury mosque faces criticism
The mosque where the Manchester bomber Abedi prayed has come under scrutiny after it emerged at least two other British recruits of the Islamic State also allegedly worshipped there. One of the recruits, Khalil Raoufi, died fighting in Syria in 2014. The other, Ahmed Ibrahim Halane, lives in Denmark, where he holds citizenship and is banned from re-entering Britain. Halane's sisters, Zahra and Salma Halane, who traveled to Syria to become "jihadi brides," are alleged to have worshipped at the mosque, say local Muslims.
Last week, trustees of the Didsbury Mosque and Islamic Center issued a statement condemning as an act of cowardice the Manchester Arena bombing by 22-year old British-Libyan Salman Abedi. The bombing left 22 people dead and 100 injured.
The trustees detailed clashes Abedi had with imam Mohammed Saeed over sermons he delivered denouncing IS in 2015. Saeed said he reported his worries about Abedi's friends to the police. Manchester police say the mosque is not under investigation.
While Mosque elders have allegedly been inconsistent in their remarks about Salman Abedi and his attendance at the mosque, they have also refused to allow the media into the mosque and tried to block a Muslim reporter from the BBC from entering to pray.
The mosque has apparently been receiving threats and hate mail and is being guarded by police and the elders are fearing being misinterpreted.
There has been fierce debate in Britain in recent years about the role mosques play, unwittingly or not, in the process of radicalisation. In 2015, Conservative peer Baroness Warsi, a Muslim, claimed most radicalisation is happening online and not at mosques. Two British government reports have warned extremists take advantage of mosques and other institutions, including universities, to spread a "poisonous narrative."
