Tablighi Jamaat – Pushing India into ‘Community Transmission/Stage 3’ of COVID-19 ?
As India continues its battle against COVID-19, a religious event held in Delhi sent shock waves across the country. The event was organised by ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ an Islamic missionary movement in Nizamuddin area of New Delhi.
When Delhi police and security agencies reached to vacate the Banglewali Masjid, markaz leadership including Maulana Saad, head of Nizamuddin Markaz refused to yield to the pleas of authorities.
Sensing the possible health and law and order threat, Home Minister Amit Shah requested NSA Ajit Doval to intervene. As per top MHA officials, Doval visited the Markaz at around 2:00 am on March 28-29 night and convinced Maulana Saad to get the occupants tested and quarantined.
2346 people including over 300 foreign nationals (primarily from Indonasia, Malasiya and Bangladesh) were present inside the premises with 536 people already showing the symptoms of COVID-19. 24 people were tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 were already dead.
#CoronavirusInIndia : 400 Positive Cases Linked To #Nizamuddin Event, Around 9,000 Quarantined, Says Govt
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— ABP News (@ABPNews) April 2, 2020
With the addition of jamaati positives, the number of covid cases has jumped well over 2000 in India. Jamaatis have travelled across the nation, be it down south or Jammu & Kashmir. Due to this present crises the count of covid positives in Tamil Nadu alone has reached 234.
Due to this widespread increase of cases which has a Markaz travel history, health officials face a big challenge to keeping India in Stage 2. But as the mobile numbers of Markaz attendees across the states have gone switched off and hence difficult to trace poses an imment threat of India entering into community spread.
What is Tablighi Jamaat ?
Tablighi Jamaat (society for spreading faith) is a global Sunni Islamic missionary organisation having its origin in India.
The movement was started in 1927 by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi.
Its goal is to create the “golden age” of Islam (Khilafat) through invitation (tabligh) to nominal Muslims to return to the six beliefs of Islam, as espoused by Prophet Muhammad.
Tablighi Jamaat aims to ensure that Muslims strictly adhere to primary Sunni Islam, particularly in matters of rituals, attires, and both personal as well as community behaviour.
