Covid-19 impact: Jammu & Kashmir, others begin tracing preachers

Health officials in at least four states are scrambling to trace people who have been infected or are potentially at risk of being infected by the Covid-19 virus after attending a gathering of Islamic preachers in New Delhi earlier this month.
The preachers, all part of Muslim group Tablighi Jamaat, came under scrutiny after a 51-year-old man from Nizamuddin Basti in the capital was put under home quarantine after being tested for the virus on Wednesday. His test results are awaited.

Meanwhile, a 65-year-old man in Kashmir, who is also believed to have been part of the congregation that gathered in the capital in the second week of March, has died after having contracted the infection.

The group, consisting largely of Malaysian and Indonesian nationals, ET has learnt, had travelled to India after attending a congregation of Islamic preachers in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia between February 27 and March 1.

During their stay in Delhi, they are believed to have come in contact with several people, who are being traced now.

Some members of the group, ET has learnt, also travelled to Saharanpur and Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana,, Tamil Nadu, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and other States after their stay in Delhi.

Apart from the J&K and New Delhi administrations, governments in Tamil Nadu and Telangana have already launched a hunt to trace the people who met the preachers.

Delhi health officials told ET that special teams comprising of Sub-Divisional Magistrates and senior officials are trying to trace the people who had come in contact with the 51-year-old preacher, and possibly others who attended the event.

"We are also in touch with health officials from other States to get faster clues on this particular case," they said.

Tablighi Jamaat, started in 1926 in the Mewat region in present-day Haryana by Islamic scholar Maulana Muhammad Ilyas, has members in over 150 countries.

The organisation is known to have no formal structure or record of its members, and is seen as completely secretive, low-profile but also apolitical.

A common tradition among its preachers, according to experts, is to promote mosques as a place for the community to "eat, learn and pray." The members are known to undertake extended travel, going from door-to-door, mosque-to-mosque, reminding Muslims the message of the Quran.

Scale of the event
Photographs of the Malaysian event, which have made their way to social media, show hundreds of worshippers praying shoulder-to-shoulder inside the mosque, while some guests posted pictures as they shared food plates. Many participants are seen sleeping in the main prayer hall, where rows of mats are placed next to each other. Tents holding up to 200 people had also been put up for the event.

The Malaysia event came to light when over 31 Indonesian nationals and Islamic preachers who took part in it, also attended the Delhi gathering earlier this month.

The District Collector of Salem (in Tamil Nadu), S A Raman told ET he had received intelligence inputs on Sunday about a group of 11 Indonesian Muslim preachers in the area.

"They had arrived in Salem on March 12 and had met many people... We have been able to trace 136 of them," he said.

"The group included some Indians too and were going from one mosque to another on Sunday evening... We intercepted them when they were going to the fifth mosque. They were extremely cooperative...some of them did talk about having a sore throat and some symptoms," he said.

The group was immediately tested for the Covid-19 virus, of which five, including an Indian tour guide, have tested positive and are in ICU, Raman said.

Navaid Hamid, President of the All India Muslim Majlise e Mushawarat, a social reform organisation, said the infection could have spread in any large gathering and it was unfair to isolate one community's event as among the reasons for the spread.

Health officials in Telangana also said teams were tracking over 70 people who had met a team of 13 preachers from Indonesia in the second week of March.