An ongoing online fundraiser campaign is trying to raise funds for Syed Issaq, a 62-year-old daily wage labourer who recently suffered a great loss after miscreants set fire to a free library he had been running for the public good. The incident occurred on Good Friday April 2 in Mysuru when some unidentified set fire to the little library that Issaq maintained personally and allowed locals access to it in the city’s Rajib Nagar area. Having run the library for 10 years, Issaq is a known and popular face in his neighbourhood. His collection included 11,000 books which included 3,000 copies of Bhagavad Gita and thousand copies of the Quran and the Bible. A majority of the books were in Kannada.
“The incident took place at around 2:45 am. It looks like the work of some miscreants. We have registered a FIR against unknown persons based on Syed Issaq’s complaint and investigation is on,” a police official who was not authorised to speak on record said.
According to a reports, Issaq who is himself uneducated works as a daily wage labourer for the Under Ground Drainage (UGD). It was to encourage and inculcate a habit of reading among the youth and to promote reading in Kannada language that Issaq had set up the library ten years ago. The library was frequented by about 100 -150 readers every day and Issaq himself purchased nearly 17 newspapers every day in English and other languages like Kannada, Tamil, Telugu. He amassed his collection of books through donations and personal efforts.
The library, however, was set aflame by miscreants. Now, a crowdfunding campaign on the online platform Ketto has been trying to raise funds for Issaq so that the daily wager can rebuild his library and continue serving society with his zeal for reading.
An investigation has also been launched into the matter after Issaq approached the cops and a case has been registered against the miscreants. The incident has not, however, deterred Issaq who told The New Indian Express that he will continue serving his cause and rebuild the library from scratch.
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