Some wrote their message in blood.

Organised by Maahol Social Group and the Shahpore-Nanavat unit of the BJP Yuva Morcha at Bhagatalav on the main thoroughfare, the message campaign was an instant hit with the people at large. Beginning at 10:30 am and continuing upto 5 pm on Sunday, the campaign yielded over 500 metres of cloth containing varied expressions of patriotism poetry, anger, reassuring words, sympathy, etc but with one theme : Drive them out of our land.

Maahol Social Group (MSG) office-bearers, while regretting that they had not planned something of this sort earlier, announced that such message campaigns would be held in different parts of the city every Sunday as long as the enemy was not crushed totally. The cloth on which the messages have been written will be handed over to city MP and union minister Kashiram Rana, to be forwarded to the jawans fighting in Kashmir. ``They should be reminded that we are with them. The army needs our moral support,'' MSG treasurer Rashesh Patel said.

All 16 members of the Maahol Social Group, along with their wives, began the day's proceedings by writing messages with their own blood, which was extracted with disposable syringes. Hundreds of curious onlookers, who had gathered at the spot since morning, watched in awe as they began writing with their own blood. A few others also volunteered to write messages in blood, but soon after, people were handed sketch pens to put in their contributions, which continued until evening.

``Honestly, we did not expect such a response. This is simply overwhelming. We should have thought of this much earlier,'' said Dipak Desai, another MSG member. Daljit Singh, after writing a message for the army said, ``We need to salute the armed forces for the battle they are waging for everybody else.''

``We love for ourselves... We live for the country,'' ``Cross the Line of Control, finish them off,'' ``You (armed forces) go on, we are with you,'' ``Use Agni and Prithvi,'', ``This is the time to take the entire Kashmir under our control,'', etc were just some of the messages that were penned down by Surtis for the jawans on the border.

However, over-enthusiasm by some volunteers was also on display as they forcibly stopped vehicles, asking drivers to write messages. Many were seen literally pulling people out of cars, forcing riders off two-wheelers and taking them to the cloth which was stuck on to a roadside wall. Maahol group organisers estimated at least 6,000 persons might have written messages of solidarity on Sunday.