Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi is in Delhi, not absconding: Jamaat

Tablighi Jamaat has refuted reports that its head, Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi, against whom an FIR has been lodged, was absconding, and said he was ready to help in any probe concerning people staying in large numbers at the Jamaat headquarters during the lockdown in the wake of coronavirus crisis.

New Delhi: Stressing that the head of Tablighi Jamaat, Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi, is not absconding and he is very much in Delhi, the Muslim organisation on Friday accused Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government that it did not issue the required documents to help people come out from the congregation as was required in view of coronavirus threat.

"It's a motivated media propaganda. These are ill-designed news stories, based on hatred," Shahid Ali, spokesperson and Lawyer of Tablighi Jamaat said while interacting with the ETV Bharat here.

He refuted the reports that the head of Tablighi Jamaat was absconding, and said he is in the national capital and ready for any cooperation that may be needed by any investigation agency. He further criticized the media reports wherein it was said that Kandhalvi, against whom FIR was filed, was missing and the police were looking for him.

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"It's unfortunate that the media of the country has turned even a disease into a Hindu-Muslim issue," Ali asserted. Ali also held Delhi Government responsible for Jamaat people being held at its headquarters when people should not have gathered in large numbers at one place, saying the state government did not issue passes to take Jamaaties out of the building.

"FIR should be filed against Arvind Kejriwal as his government did not issue us the passes to take people out despite the fact that we kept on asking for permission," he said.

Since March 25th, we kept on asking for permission but we did not get it even till 31st of March, Ali said.

On being asked that announcements were being made even before the dates the Jamaat started asking for permission, Ali said people do not come and gather at the Jamaat occasionally.

"It's the main centre of Jamaaties. They would come and go from here to different places the whole year. It's not that they would gather here at a particular time of the year, it's an on-going process which continues twenty-four into seven for the whole year," Ali explained.

Over two thousand people were evacuated from the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Nizamuddin area of the city during the on-going lockdown in the wake of coronavirus threat. They stayed there even after instructions were issued that social distancing should be maintained in order to prevent the killer virus spread any further.