Hyderabad: A religious congregation of 2000 people took place at a mosque in Delhi's Nizamuddin area. Now, it has been established as the epicentre of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in India.
Tablighi Jamaat (Society for spreading faith) is a non-political global Sunni Islamic missionary organisation which held the congregation.
The Jamaat movement, which was started in 1927 by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi, had in 2010 over 80 million followers from more than 150 countries. According to the Tablighi Jamaat, the aim is to create the "golden age" of Islam through an invitation to Muslims to return to the pillars of the prophetic religion.
Its goal is to create the “golden age” of Islam (Khilafat) through invitation (tabligh) to nominal Muslims to return to the six pillars of Islam, as espoused by Prophet Muhammad, according to an article published by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center.
Tablighi Jamaat focuses on urging Muslims to return to primary Sunni Islam, particularly in matters of rituals, attires, and personal behaviour. It has been called “one of the most influential religious movements in 20th century Islam”.
One of the features of the Jamaat is the bands of preachers operate from mosques across the Indian sub-continent. One such cluster in Erode is believed to be the viral vector in Tamil Nadu.
Read: How religious gathering in Delhi led to COVID-19 spread in India
The preachers, who usually venture out on 40-day mission, interact with neighbours, invite them to namaz and seminars at the mosque. The group encourages its followers to undertake short-term preaching missions away from home, known as khuruj. These missions can last from a few days to a few months.
Around 1,500 people, who attended the conference by Islamic preachers belonging to Tablighi Jamaat, stayed back in Delhi's Nizamuddin West following the nationwide lockdown.
The rest, however, travelled back to their home states further causing the rapid spread of infection. Indonesians in Telangana have been identified as the epicentre of the spread in Karimnagar and Erode district appears to be at the centre of COVID-19 surge in Tamil Nadu.
Foreign preachers travelled to different cities including Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thanjavur to work with mosques. Following this on March 16, 10 Indonesians admitted to Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad show COVID-19 symptoms. All of them had attended the gathering.
According to Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain, 24 people who were present at the Markaz building tested positive for coronavirus. Besides, 17 new cases emerged in Andhra Pradesh who were either in attendance or came in close contact of person who attended the meeting.
As the links became clear, Delhi CM called for an emergency meet and sealed off the area. Hundreds of those who were stranded in the mosque, following the lockdown, were whisked away to hospitals.
Another worrying strand that has emerged is that the list of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin from Jammu and Kashmir is huge. Clearly, many of them are not in quarantine yet and the administration and police are making efforts to identity, trace and isolate.
It is learnt that the government has prepared a 50-page list of people from J&K who attended the congregation or came in contact with those. Efforts are being made to identify these people and isolate them.
