top of page

By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks)...

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks) distributed to Class V-VIII students in 52 government and private schools. “The aim was to inculcate a love for ‘saving and reading’ among young children. We started by presenting small plastic ‘gullaks’ (savings boxes) at the Iqra Boys & Girls High School, and later to many other schools,” Mirza said with a tinge of satisfaction. Scoffed by sceptics, it soon caught the eyes of the schools and parents who loved the idea that kept the kids off mischief, but gave them the joy of quietly slipping Re. 1 or even Rs. 5 save from their daily pocket money into the ‘gullak’. “That tiny ‘gullak’ costing barely Rs 3-Rs 5, becomes almost like their personal tiny bank which they guard fiercely and nobody dares touch it. At the right time they spend the accumulated savings to buy books of their choice – with no questions asked. Isn’t it better than wasting it on toys or sweets or amusement,” chuckled Mirza. A childhood bookworm himself, Mirza, now 50, remembers how he dipped into his school’s ‘Book Box’ to avail books of his choice and read them along with the regular syllabus. “Reading became my passion, not shared by many then or even now… Sadly, in the current era, reading and saving are dying habits. I am trying to revive them for the good of the people and country,” Maulana Mirza told The Perfect Voice. After graduation, Mirza was jobless for sometime, and decided to make his passion as a profession – he took books in a barter deal from the renowned Nagpur philanthropist, Padma Bhushan Maulana Abdul Karim Parekh, lugged them on a bicycle to hawk outside mosques and dargahs. He not only sold the entire stock worth Rs 3000 quickly, but asked astonished Parekh for more – and that set the ball rolling in a big way, ultimately emboldening him to launch the NGO, ‘Read & Lead Foundation’ (2018). “However, despite severe resources and manpower crunch, we try to cater to the maximum number of students, even outside the district,” smiled Mirza. The RLF is also supported by his daughter Mariyam Mirza’s Covid-19 pandemic scheme, ‘Mohalla Library Movement’ that catapulted to global fame, and yesterday (Oct. 20), the BBC telecast a program featuring her. The father-daughter duo urged children to shun mobiles, video-games, television or social media and make ‘books as their best friends’, which would always help in life, as they aim to gift 1-lakh students with ‘gullaks’ in the next couple of years. At varied intervals Mirza organizes small school book fairs where the excited kids troop in, their pockets bulging with their own savings, and they proudly purchase books of their choice in Marathi, English, Hindi or Urdu to satiate their intellectual hunger. Fortunately, the teachers and parents support the kids’ ‘responsible spending’, for they no longer waste hours before screens but attentively flip pages of their favourite books, as Mirza and others solicit support for the cause from UNICEF, UNESCO, and global NGOs/Foundations. RLF’s real-life savers: Readers UNICEF’s Jharkhand District Coordinator and ex-TISS alumnus Abul Hasan Ali is full of gratitude for the ‘gullak’ habit he inculcated years ago, while Naregaon Municipal High School students Lakhan Devdas (Class 6) and Sania Youssef (Class 8) say they happily saved most of their pocket or festival money to splurge on their favourite books...! Zilla Parishad Girls Primary School (Aurangpura) teacher Jyoti Pawar said the RLF has proved to be a “simple, heartwarming yet effective way” to habituate kids to both reading and savings at a tender age, while a parent Krishna Shinde said it has “changed the whole attitude of children”. “We encourage books of general interest only, including inspiring stories of youth icons like Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai (28) and environmentalist Greta Thunberg (23) which fascinates our students, and other popular children’s literature,” smiled Mirza. The Maulana’s RLF, which has opened three dozen libraries in 7 years, acknowledges that every coin dropped into the small savings boxes begins a new chapter – and turns into an investment in knowledge that keeps growing.

Convict Saquib Nachan dies, with many secrets

ree

Mumbai: Twice convicted terrorist Saquib A. Nachan from Thane district passed away following brain hemorrhage at a New Delhi hospital while in judicial custody, official sources said.

 

Nachan, 65, nabbed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) 18 months ago, had collapsed following a massive stroke in the Tihar Jail on June 22.

 

First, he was rushed to the government-run Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where the medicos diagnosed him with brain hemorrhage but he was not responding to treatment.

 

Later, as he was unconscious and remained critical, he was shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital where he breathed his last today. Further details are awaited.

 

As news of his passing spread, a team of cops led by Padgha Police Station head Police Inspector Jitendra Thakur visited the vicinity where the Nachan clan resides.

 

“The situation here is absolutely calm and peaceful,” Thakur told ‘The Perfect Voice’ later, without elaborating much.

 

Last week, security circles were agog with speculation that he may have passed away, but the air cleared after his son Aaquib and other relatives were summoned to New Delhi to meet him.

 

Long stint in jail

Hailing from the Borivali-Padgha twin villages in Bhiwandi taluka of adjoining Thane district, Nachan – who had spent two long stints in jail for different terror cases – was arrested by the NIA in December 2023.

 

This time, he was booked and lodged in prison for allegedly heading a terror module of the banned ISIS operating surreptitiously in Maharashtra.

 

The sleepy village of Padgha with a population of around 6000 people – more than 80 pc Muslims – shot to global headlines after the ISIS Maharashtra had unilaterally proclaimed it as ‘Al Sham’ or a liberated zone, and Nachan proclaiming himself as the organization’s state chief.

 

Among other things, the investigators were probing Nachan’s involvement with the dreaded ISIS terror outfit, his associates in the state and other parts of India, their global connections with like-minded organizations, their suspected penetration in this country, aspects pertaining to funds, weapons, and manpower recruitment for their nefarious plans – which may remain secret now.

 

A former state president and general secretary of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Nachan had spent nearly 20 years in prison following conviction in two separate terror cases.

 

He was first arrested and convicted by the Supreme Court in 1997 with a 10-year jail-term for hatching terror plots in connivance with Khalistani extremists.

 

Later, he was convicted by a Mumbai court for the 2002-2003 suburban train blasts, again for 10 years till his release in 2017.

 

Subsequently, the NIA had swooped on Padgha village in Dec. 2023 for probing the ISIS case and arrested Nachan plus many others. He remained in judicial custody till his demise today.

 

Who was Saquib A. Nachan

A former SIMI state president and general secretary plus a self-styled ISIS Maharashtra head, Nachan, 65, has been booked in over a dozen terror-related cases from the 1990s.

 

He was arrested and convicted twice – and spent 10 years in jail each time – for different terror cases. Nachan’s other associates were also convicted for different crimes.

 

Nachan was grudgingly acknowledged for his sharp legal acumen and fought his own cases as all bar association lawyers had boycotted him and his associates in the past.

 

The NIA raids in Dec. 2023 found that almost all the ISIS Maharashtra cells were operating from Borivali-Padgha with alleged conspiracies of violent jihadi acts in tune with ISIS’ plans to develop a strong base in India.

 

On June 2, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) carried out massive raids in Borivali-Padgha and rounded up around a dozen suspects, including past-present office-bearers of the SIMI.

 

The premises belonged to Nachan, plus Aaquib S. Nachan, Kaif Nachan, Shajil Nachan, Faraq Zubair Mulla and Abdul Latif Kaskar.

 

The ATS said that following reliable intel of certain anti-national activities and terror attacks being plotted, the agency swung into action, secured search warrants from the Thane Court and launched the search-cum-raids which yielded mobile phones, a sword, a chopper, property papers and literature pertaining to terrorism and radicalisation.

 

Comments

bottom of page