When Mumbai Paralysed; Swayamsevaks spring into action

Immediately after confirmation of the Mumbai terror attack at 10:30 pm on 26th November, RSS swayamsevaks reached GT Hospital and JJ Hospital.

GT Hospital:

a. Number of Volunteers: 15
b. Nature of work: First aid and primary care for injured, informing relatives of the injured people.
c. This hospital was also targeted by terrorists. Initially injured police personnel who were deployed around the hospital were brought into the hospital. Later on the other injured personnel were sent to BombayHospital
d. Volunteers arranged tea for all the police personnel and their relatives at 2 am
e. Volunteers distributed drinking water bottles immediately to the police and other agencies.
f. For helping the injured and their families, the first and only volunteers to reach the hospitals at night were Sangh volunteers and Shiv Sena. All these  volunteers, officers of BJP, worked fearlessly amid heavy shooting without worrying about their own lives.
g. Doctors and police were seen working in coordination with Sangh volunteers
h. The rear side of the GT Hospital was also attacked. Attackers stormed into houses of 2 employees and shot them. 3 were injured, but employees did not show any fear. Everybody wanted to fight the terrorists.

JJ Hospital:

a. Main Volunteers: 15
b. Total Sangh Parivar volunteers: 125
c. Nature of work: Blood donation, help in emergency ward, coordination with various agencies, information passing to families of the injured, crowd control, helping police keep law and order in general public.
d. Total 200 bottles of blood were collected. 125 bottles were collected from Sangh volunteers
e. 10 volunteers helped nurses, doctors and physicians in Emergency wards
f. Volunteers helped in informing family members about injured people, coordinating with police for such work.
g. 125 volunteers provided help at JJ hospital. In this effort, many Sangh parivar organizations as well as BJP, & Shiv Sena were present.
h. At JJ Hospital, prominent activists including Kirit Somayya donated blood.

Mandavi Area (Near Masjit Railway station and Sandhurst Road Railway station):

a. Volunteers: 65
b. Due to the attacks, all train services were stopped immediately. Thousands of passengers were stranded in trains. Sangh volunteers made food and stay arrangements for passengers stuck between Masjid Bunder Station and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Stay arrangements for about 120 passengers was made at the RaghunathMandirTemple. Separate arrangements were also made for ladies. For all these passengers and commuters, food expenses were borne by the volunteers themselves.Volunteers went to the railway station and informed all passengers about the arrangements made for them.
c. There were several passengers bound for destinations outside Mumbai in long distance trains. Sangh volunteers made transport arrangements to take them up to Dadar station.

St. George Hospital :

a. Blood donation was not required here.
b. Here several volunteers from Kolaba Machhimaar Nagar distributed food packets to Police. On 26th and 27th November, about 225 packets of Pulav were distributed to injured people and their relatives. The next day, on 27th November, volunteers distributed 500 packets of Pulav at JJ Hospital and at St.GeorgeHospital.
c. The volunteering effort was being managed by BJP leader Shri Kirit Rajput.

Bombay Hospital:

a. Injured Police and foreign nationals were admitted here. Some seriously injured were also brought here.
b. On 27th November, on receiving information from the hospital, volunteers from Nana Palkar Rugna Seva Samiti and Vila Parle chapter of Sangh arranged for blood donation. 30 people participated in the donation drive. This included 3 ladies and rare blood groups such as A (-ve) was also collected.
c. The volunteering effort at BombayHospital was managed by BJP leader Kamlakar Dalvi.

Nariman Bhavan:

During the attack on Nariman Bhavan, some local residents tried to defend and repel the attackers. In the process, BJP volunteer Harish Gohil was hit by terrorist bullets and died. Terrorists also lobbed grenades on the crowd. In the grenade attack, BJP leader Prakash Surve was injured.

(Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Mumbai- Translated from Hindi)