By M.R. Narayan Swamy,

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Forging bonds after decades of animosity, Hindus in their hundreds donated blood and bought medicines for Muslim victims of a bloody bombing in Maharashtra's communal tinderbox Malegaon.

In a display of communal camaraderie that is drawing widespread praise, a town that would erupt into sectarian frenzy at the drop of a hat transformed itself so dramatically after three bomb blasts and a panic stampede in a graveyard near a mosque killed 38 and injured some 190, many seriously.

The attacks took place in the very heart of Malegaon's Muslim quarter on a Friday when people were preparing for Shab-e-Barat in memory of their dead. For many tense moments, as rumours flew thick and fast, there was probably no one who did not fear a ferocious communal riot in the battered town.

Some angry young Muslims did stone police vans as they made their way to the disaster site. But community elders managed to placate them, telling them about the urgent need to transport the dying and wounded to hospitals.

Barring the privately run Farhan Hospital in the sprawling Muslim area, all other private hospitals and the municipal hospital are in the Hindu district where the badly bleeding Muslims were taken to. Most of Malegaon's 700,000 are Muslims, and both communities live in separate watertight compartments.

In no time, Hindus poured on to the streets as social and political activists cruised through the streets asking people to donate blood for "our Muslim brethren".

It was as if Malegaon, which has repeatedly seen communal flare-ups from 1963 to 2001, was desperate to wash away its shameful history.

To the surprise of many, among those who took the lead in lending a helping hand to the Muslims were activists of the rabidly Hindu Shiv Sena.

"Malegaon has created history," says Dada Bhuse, the Shiv Sena legislator from near the town, 300 km from Mumbai. But he is generous with credit. "The Shiv Sena helped but so did Hindus from all walks of life, parties and NGOs."

Said Shyam Bagu, who reached Malegaon after the blasts: "Hindus went around the town saying 'We have to save our Muslim brothers'."

"We did not see it as a Hindu-Muslim issue. We saw it as a conspiracy against India, against Mahrashtra," Bhuse, 42, told IANS on telephone. "We had to face this disaster together. We did."

Bhuse said he told the two blood banks in the area to supply blood to the injured "free of cost. I also told them to return whatever money they had taken from the Muslims. I told them that Hindus would pay for the blood."

Simultaneously, hundreds of Hindus queued up at hospitals offering their blood to Muslims.

Congress legislator Sheikh Rashid, who has spent all his 50 years in Malegaon, said the town had given "a fitting reply to the terrorists".

"Yes, Hindus donated blood, on their own. They also purchased medicines for poor Muslims. They did everything possible," Rashid told IANS.

Bhuse said Hindus who were in Malegaon's main bus stand, in the Muslim quarter, panicked in the immediate aftermath of the blasts. "However, the Muslim rickshaw driver transported them to Hindu areas and refused to take money from them."

This was the same town where the slightest of pretext was enough to pit Hindus and Muslims against one another. A reported show of support for Osama bin Laden by some Muslims in 2001 led to frenzied rioting.

Normally, Malegaon's Hindus and Muslims acted as if they belonged to two different worlds. For the first time, all Hindu shops closed down in solidarity with Muslims.

How did all this happen?

According to Bagu, Malegaon has still not overcome the trauma of the 2001 communal showdown. "That was really bad and both communities realized that there is no winner in violence. It was a belated awakening, but one for good."

Bhuse has a grouse. "The media has been berating Malegaon because of the past. The past is true, but the past is past. Malegaon has united. But it badly needs economic development. We need factories, businesses and jobs."

Is anyone listening?