The Jamaat Scare

A sizeable number of devotees attending a religious congregation in New Delhi on March 8-10 have tested positive of coronavirus in the past few days in different states of the country; several of them have been also reportedly died following the infection. This has sent alarm bells ringing across the country, and Assam is definitely the most worried, the reason being more than 450 of those who had attended the congregation were from this state, and that most of them had definitely returned home since. It all began on March 16, when a group of 10 Indonesian citizens were rushed to the isolation ward in a hospital in Hyderabad after one of them showed symptoms of COVID-19. While one of them tested positive on March 17, seven others were confirmed to have COVID-19 the next day. Four days later the Tamil Nadu government confirmed that two Thailand nationals had tested positive for coronavirus. What was common between these Indonesians and Thais was that all of them had attended a huge gathering in Delhi before they travelled south – a three-day conference of Islamic preachers belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat, at a mosque in Nizamuddin in New Delhi beginning March 8. According to media reports, about 50 preachers from Indonesia, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan who had attended the conference in New Delhi, dispersed to work with mosques in many districts of southern India. What is most disturbing is that while many of those – Indians and foreigners – who had attended the Istema in the New Delhi mosque have been tested positive, a few have also died in the past few days in Tamil Nadu and Telangana. One report said that most of the people from Tamil Nadu who had returned from the Istema in New Delhi have tested positive of coronavirus so far. Assam, a state which has so far remained free from any person contracting coronavirus, is definitely worried because over 450 persons from the state had attended the Muslim congregation. The return of these 450-plus people to their respective localities had remained unreported despite the state government repeatedly asking people returning from other states and countries to voluntarily report to the authorities. But the good news is that the state government is in the possession of the names of all these people hiding in different districts, with Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma saying that almost all of them have been identified and were in the process of being quarantined and tested at the earliest. It is very unfortunate and disturbing that these people returning after attending the Tablighi Jamaat Istema in New Delhi had so long remained in the hiding. It is a grossly irresponsible act.