Zafar Rizvi

LUCKNOW: The Facebook account of Zafar Rizvi , the man who intervened and rescued Kashmiri vendors being assaulted by members of a fringe Hindu group, was bombarded with congratulatory messages as well as abuses after video of the incident went viral.

Scared, Rizvi refused to talk to anyone but TOI managed to convince him to recount the sequence of events.

"Don't make me a hero, be one yourself if you want to bring change in society," said Rizvi, a resident of Old City, in an exclusive chat with TOI on Thursday, adding that by saving Kashmiris, he actually helped armed forces. "If we do wrong with Kashmiris here, our armed forces may face retaliation in Kashmir. If we embrace Kashmiris here, they will embrace our forces there."

"I was going to Gomtinagar with my friend on Wednesday afternoon when we saw some people beating up Kashmiri vendors on Daliganj bridge, accusing them of being terrorists. I intervened and told them that if the vendors had been terrorists, they would have blown all of us with a bomb. On this, they asked me to show my identity proof which I did and asked them to check the identity cards of vendors as well. Better sense prevailed and the attackers relented," he recalled.

"I only objected to injustice and was successful because of God's grace. Everyone can do the same," he said.

Eyewitnesses told TOI that some people in crowd tried to scare Rizvi by shouting 'Vande Mataram' and 'Pakistan Murdabad'. Rizvi responded by yelling 'Vande Mataram' even louder and told them to call Pakistan as 'Paapistan'.



In Video: Lucknow: Good samaritan comes forward to rescue Kashmiri dry fruits seller after being thrashed by goons