Bengaluru: “If you don’t need it, leave it. If you need it, take it,” reads a writing on the wall of a DysP traffic police station in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. 

The writing aptly sums up the care and concern, a 33-year-old police officer Sheikh Aadil Mushtaq, a 2015-batch Kashmir Police Service (KPS) officer from Baramulla district has towards the people. 

The initiative “Wall of Kindness” prods people to meaningfully drop things like sweater, jacket and other food items that they don’t need at the place. At the same time, the ones who are in need of the same things are free to take them for their personal use.

“It is not a new idea. It is a corollary effort. This Wall of Kindness is an interface that I have dedicated to the people of Srinagar,” the website adds Aadil as saying.

The initiative has seen an overwhelming response. 

“Every day, hundreds of people come and donate items such as woollen clothes, food and blankets etc,” Aadil adds. 

“Any homeless or an underprivileged person can have a cup of tea or coffee to beat the chilling winter. My initiative has been successful. The things are reaching the needy and the deserving people, and this was the main purpose of my initiative. I have been lucky here. The kind of love and affection I get from people is overwhelming,” he further adds. 
The police officer is doing it as an act of social service and not as a police officer. 

“I am not doing it as a police officer. Being a police officer is my second identity. I am a responsible citizen first, and I have certain responsibilities towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he notes. 

The police officer underlines the importance of being compassionate. 

It hardly matters whether the initiative has been taken by a police officer or a civilian. What matters is that we need to be compassionate towards people, who have been economically hit by two lockdowns since August 5 last year. We need to be compassionate towards each other and help each other in the trying times like Covid-19 pandemic. We should come up with such initiatives regularly,” he says further.