Pursuit Of A Noble Cause : Rushing sick, injured to hospitals for free

Hyderabad: In this rat race for wealth and power where everyone is busy with their lives and rarely thinks about the welfare of others, an Octogenarian is always ready with his auto rickshaw, the only ambulance of its kind, to save thosein the golden hour.

In the last 14months, the 83-year-old has helped thousands of patients reach hospitals, as part of his emergency free service.

Mohammed Haneef started the service with the complimentary amount he received during his solo holy pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia on his bicycle starting from Mecca Masjid in the Old City.

With a burning desire to serve people for free, he started off with his 3 lakh, which he got as complimentary money from the patrons in 7 states and 7 countries on his way to Mecca, and decided to serve the patients for free from accessible location to any of the government-run hospital in the city.

He converted his 3-wheeler rickshaw into an ambulance 14 months agoand given the name, 'KCR free service,' and served about 15,000 patients.

"As the information about the free service spread through the word of mouth, people started dialling my mobile number (+91 7680858966) for help, instead of calling ambulance.

Be it inthe Old City or some other part of the city, I try to helpthe needy reach government hospitals in time," he said.

Service name changes

In the beginning, many a TRS leaders appreciated his social work and for calling it as the service of KCR, but none came forward to support him in his endeavour.

During the campaign for recently held Parliamentary election, the BJP MP candidate from Secunderabad and current Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy invited him at his place.

During the brief meeting with him, Kishan Reddy assured that his party would support him for his next Haj journey on bicycle clearing all legal issues.

Since then, the name of service has been changed and renamed after the initials of Kishan Reddy and Narender Modi. For the last two months, he has been serving under the name, 'BJP KR & NM free service.'

"In my first pilgrimage on bicycle, I had to deal with several legal hurdles and permissions from the state governments of other nations on my way.

But, I hope the union government eases the legal issues in my next Haj trip on bicycle," he said.

Unique Haj experience at 71

In 2006, when he was 71 years old, he wanted to accomplish the feat of cycling to Haj.

It took 9months for him after he began on his journey from Mecca Masjid at Charminar to the Holy City of Mecca in Saudi on his bicycle.

Enroute, he travelled to the national capital via Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. After getting all the permissions, he crossed Wagah Border in Punjab to Pakistan and via Lahore he crossed the borders of Afghanistan and Iran.

After entering Saudi Arabia, he toured Jeddah, Madinah and reached his destination of the holy City of Mecca, during his 9-months long journey.

"I think the passion and excitement to reach closer to the Almighty made me forget the fatigue of journey. Covering 11,000 km, it was a memorable journey, which started in 2006 and his trip ended in 2007," he added.

His pilgrimage inspired many

Following his successful pilgrimage, at least four men from Maharashtra drew inspiration and decided to take up the task.

Encouraged by his feat, they visited Hyderabad and met him for getting information of procedures to be followed.

Guided with the map provided by him, they completed the journey in six months by taking a shorter route.

Haneef has been driving autos for the last 50 years helping his children get educated, some of whom are engineers and hold also MBA degree.

He has six daughters and two sons, amongst whom one son is in Dubai and one daughter resides in London.

"With the grace of Almighty Allah, all my kids are well educated. Otherwise, my struggle would have gone futile," he explained.

Besides providing free service, his routine included the dropping of school kids during morning and evening hours.

He is now planning for his second cycling trip to Mecca to perform Haj after his two daughters get married.

He said, "By the end of 2020 or 2021, I will take up another attempt to Haj on bicycle."