As the Centre is battling to contain the spread of coronavirus COVID-19, 30 Tablighi Jamaat members on Saturday tested positive in a quarantine centre in Delhi's Mundka. A total of 12o people were kept in Lok Nayak Puram in Bakkarwala area of Mundka. The sample reports of many others are yet to come.
Thousands of people across India and worldwide had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz in March. Hundreds of these attendees across the country have tested positive so far. The Tablighi Jamaat is being held responsible for the sudden spurt in coronavirus infections in the country.
In Delhi, the total number of positive cases has reached 1,069 and death toll mounted to 19 so far. The national capital recorded five deaths on Saturday and 166 new cases of the deadly virus. In the 166 cases reported, 128 are those of the Markaz attendees or those in contact with them. So far, 712 cases from Markaz have been reported in Delhi. A total of 26 people have been discharged from hospitals until now.
The Nizamuddin area has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including those in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana. South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on April 10 conducted sanitisation drive outside Markaz wearing full-body protective gear. One of the workers said, "We have sanitised the place and took out some clothes."
Maulana Saad Khandhlawi, the chief of religious Islamic outfit Tablighi Jamaat, is quarantined in his Zakir Nagar residence in the national capital, Delhi Police sources said on April 8. He had courted controversy for not paying heed to the advice of other Islamic clerics who had urged him to cancel the religious congregation Delhi’s Nizamuddin area between March 13 and March 15. Saad’s stubborn attitude coupled with the voluntary participation of over 3,000 Jamaatis has now endangered public health and safety.
Caught in the eye of a storm over sheltering more than 2,000 religious followers at Tablighi Jamat’s Delhi headquarters in Nizamuddin during the COVID-19 lockdown, Maulana Saad claims to have over 100 crore followers in nearly 200 countries.
Maulana Saad had released an audio recording, presumably shot in a studio, appealing to attendees to follow authorities and cooperate with the doctors. He further asked the Muslims to take the name of Allah and pray. “Instead of worrying about the disease, say the name of Allah,” he said. He functions from the Nizamuddin mosque, which serves as a global Markaz (centre) of Tablighi Jamaat.
Deemed as one of the most influential movements in the Muslim world, Tablighi Jamaat was established by Maulana Muhammed Ilyas Khandlawi, the great grandfather of Maulana Saad.
