The heartwarming gesture has come to the fore from Malpore village in Sopore, 55 kilometre from Srinagar, where the local mosque committee started collecting donations both in cash and in kind.

Sopore: An egg donated to raise money for the construction of a mosque in this apple town in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district has helped raise Rs 2.26 lakh in an auction, the committee managing the religious place has said.

The heartwarming gesture has come to the fore from Malpore village in Sopore, 55 kilometre from Srinagar, where the local mosque committee started collecting donations both in cash and in kind.

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An elderly woman, who has requested anonymity, said she donated a freshly laid egg by her chicken. All donations made in kind were put up for auction and the egg turned out to be the most sought after.

A local resident said people bid on the egg for three days and after every round, the successful bidder paid the amount they bid and then returned the egg to the committee as a donation to raise more money.

On the final day of the auction, a young businessman named Danish Ahmad bought the egg for a whopping Rs 70,000. Ahmad, who hails from the neighbouring Warpora area, said, “We are very eager to complete the construction of this mosque at the earliest. As the mosque is planned to be big, the funds needed are also rather large.”

“I am not a rich man but it was just my passion and emotion towards the sacred space…,” he added.

According to Ahmad, after several rounds of auction, the cumulative funds raised by bidders for the egg was a staggering Rs 2,26,350.