New Delhi: Like the Tableeghi Jamaat’s (TJ) world headquarters at Nizamuddin in south Delhi, Pakistan’s main TJ centre at Raiwind on the outskirts of Lahore, has also been the flashpoint of a flurry of COVID 2019 positive cases.
The Punjab provincial authorities in Pakistan have declared a lockdown of Raiwind city since Tuesday with security forces being heavily deployed and Rawind’s exit and entry points being strictly monitored, Pakistani media reported.
On Wednesday, of the 110 samples of TJ members taken for tests, 41 had tested positive even as other reports were awaited. These TJ members were residing inside the Raiwind ‘markaz’. According to media reports, about 600 TJ members were still inside the ‘markaz’.
Raiwind hosted a TJ event from March 11-15 that was attended by thousands of Tabhleeghis including more than 500 foreigners from countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, central Asian countries and many others including India.
The event was held in blatant violation of Lahore district administration authorities who had imposed prohibitions as part of preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus.
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According to Pakistani media reports, Lahore deputy commissioner Danish Afzaal said in a press meet on Wednesday that about 900 residents of Raiwind had already been quarantined even as food rations for ten days were being distributed by the administration.
As of Thursday, Pakistan has reported 2,286 COVID 2019 positive cases of which 845 are from its Punjab province. The country has seen 32 deaths due to the virus until now.
Many of TJ members are globe-trotting preachers operating three preaching modules—for three-days, for 40 days and for four months. Usually, the preachers fan out across the country and abroad after Tableeghi ‘ijtemas’ (congregations) that are usually held in south Asia or southeast Asia.
The Raiwind ‘ijtema’ was held after the February 27-March 1, 2020 ‘ijtema’ at Sri Petaling Mosque (Masjid Jamek) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where about 16,000 TJ members, besides hundreds from foreign countries including China, got together.
Interestingly, the Petaling Mosque ‘ijtema’ too proved to be a flashpoint where about 700 tested positive for COVID 2019.
Incidentally, the TJ ‘markaz’ near the Banglewali mosque in south Delhi’s Nizamuddin area has become the Ground Zero of India’s fast increasing COVID 2019 numbers.
