The Union Government has on April 18, 2020 announced that
the Islamic missionary organization, Tablighi Jamaat, congregation in its
central Delhi headquarters, the Markaz, has caused more than 4,000 Coronavirus
cases across the country.
Out of the total number
of 14,378 coronavirus cases in the country, almost 4,291 cases have close links
with Jamaat. It has been estimated nearly three out of every ten cases belong
to Tablighi Jamaat.
Surprisingly, India is
not only the country in the world that has had to suffer due to Tablighi Jamaat
workers unwittingly turning their sect into the country’s virus super
spreaders. In several countries - mostly in south and south-east Asia - the
Tablighi Jamaat has been linked to 3,000 more cases, and counting.
Like neighboring
Pakistan where over 500 of the country’s 7,500-plus cases are prima facie
linked to the Jamaat workers. One key hotspot in Pakistan was the Raiwind
Ijtema, the annual event in March that, according to the police, was attended
by about 100,000 people. The Jamaat puts the size of this congregation at twice
as much.
But it is in Malaysia
where a Tablighi Jamaat congregation at a sprawling mosque complex on the
outskirts of Kuala Lumpur is seen as the source of hundreds of new coronavirus
cases in the country and far beyond. Malaysia has linked over 1,500 of its
3,500 Covid-19 cases to this congregation.
In February, the mosque
complex hosted its annual congregation attended by over 15,000 people who
dispersed before countries started ordering the shutdown. Some of them are
presumed to have come to India.
It was only when
Telangana confirmed that six people who had attended the Delhi event had tested
positive that an alarm was sounded.
Jamaat workers have been
reported to have tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen that causes the
coronavirus disease. For example, 79 of the 5.900 Covid-19 cases detected in
Indonesia are linked to the Jamaat.
Back in India, the
Jamaat challenge appears to be finally in grips in national capital Delhi,
where the government has traced down hundreds of more people with links to the
Jamaat and sent them to quarantine centers. However, the city has not reported
a Jamat-linked positive case over the past couple of days.