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Coronavirus outbreak feared: How are Tablighi Jamaat members being prevented in Pakistan?
Residents were recently warned of two major dangers in an announcement recently in the Pakistani city of Gujarat. They were told not to 'shake hands' with people returning from overseas countries, especially Spain and Italy, to avoid the Coronavirus, and the second declaration was to avoid people from the Tablighi community.
Gujarat has the highest number of corona patients in Punjab after Lahore. A large number of people are residing abroad from the Gujarat district.
Traveling to the waist, caps on the head, the people of Tablighi Jamaat are identified from afar as they line up. Last month, he entered different cities and villages of Pakistan in the same manner, but this time his arrival caused concern and anxiety among the locals.
In the form of groups, members of the Tablighi Jamaat also participated in a gathering at the Tablighi Center, located at Raiwind, Lahore, at the end of the second week of March. From there and in the days that followed, he continued on a 'missionary mission'.
By the time the evacuation groups reached their designated areas and started their work, conditions had changed drastically. The outbreak of the Coronavirus was accelerating and the whole country was in lockdown.
The presence of Coronavirus was confirmed in a few people coming out of Tablighi gathering in Islamabad these days. The local administration quarantined the entire area, and two other neighborhoods were closed for the same reasons.
These incidents have raised concerns among the public as well as the health institutions, whether their worst fears were going to be corrected.
According to the District Administration and Police of Lahore, more than 200,000 people attended the gathering of Raiwind, including people from abroad. They stayed there for two nights and three days. They were then 'banned' and boarded buses to different cities of the country.
By then China, Iran, Europe, and the United States worldwide had proven that the Coronavirus spreads rapidly through gatherings. So could this have happened even during the preaching of the Tablighi congregation?
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Why are people in the preaching community worried?
The Punjab government has completely shut down the preaching center in Raiwind. Out of the hundreds present, only 50 have been tested and 27 have been found to have the coronavirus.
Zulfiqar Hameed, CCPO of Lahore, told the BBC, "It was not unusual for two to three thousand people to live in the Raiwind Center at a time."
Deputy Commissioner Lahore Danish Afzal also confirmed that at that time there were more than 2,000 people in the Tablighi center, of which around 600 were foreigners.
"Most of the people were kept at Quarantina in the same center, while some were sent to Quarantine Center in Kala Shah Kaku," he said.
However, by the time the government came into force, it had been only a few days before the main gathering and the days that followed had spread to the Tablighi groups all over the country.
The situation now facing the government is how many people were involved in these propaganda groups, how many areas have they spread, how to find them and where to place them?
How many people were on a missionary mission?
Ghazanfar Shah, Superintendent of Police of Lahore area president, told the BBC that according to the data provided by the Tablighi Jamaat, "since the gathering, 20 of their constituencies have moved to different cities of Pakistan.". '
He said there were about 100 people in one constituency. The grouping of the Tablighi community differs from those made at the district level. One Circle of Tablighiya can also be divided into a single division and may be divided into different districts within a division.
SP President Ghazanfar Shah said that the March gathering is one of the three annual gatherings organized by the Tablighi Jamaat and consisting mostly of permanent members.
According to these figures, about 2,000 people from the Raiwind Center were present for preaching in different parts of the country.
Where did these preachings come from?
In addition to Lahore, more than 100 people have been quarantined at a publicity center in Kasur, Punjab province. Similarly, a member of the local Tabitha center in Leah was also confirmed with the virus, but he fled after being hit by a knife-wielding police officer who was later arrested.
Khurram Shehzad, the deputy commissioner of Gujarat's Punjab province, told the BBC that there were 78 members of the Tablighi Jamaat in the Gujarat district. Some of them are housed in a mosque while others are housed in Quarantina. Of these, 13 samples were sent for testing.
How many Corps members have Corona confirmed?
The largest number of members of the Corona-infested Tablighi Jamaat have emerged in Hyderabad, Sindh province.
Sindh Health Media Media Coordinator told the BBC that as of Tuesday, the corps had been confirmed at the Tablighi center in Hyderabad while 94 members were in Karachi.
He said that there was also the death of a person in Karachi who had returned after attending a gathering of Tablighi Jamaat. The virus has also been confirmed in her son. '
According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department, the Coronavirus was confirmed in four people belonging to the Tablighi community in Abbottabad until Tuesday and one person was killed. Similarly, members of Tablighi Jamaat were present in Mardan and Waziristan districts.
In Punjab province now more numbers have been reported in the Raiwind Center where 27 people have been confirmed with the virus while those who have been tested are very few.
Can the Outreach Center increase the number of patients in Raiwind?
According to Deputy Commissioner Lahore Danish Afzal, the publicity center Raiwind is quite spacious and the people inside were evacuated to different buildings in case of gangs.
"Some of them have also been shifted to a separate center in Raiwind while some have been shifted to Kala Shah Kaku."
He said all the individuals were being isolated and after that, the symptoms would show up.
However, SP President Ghazanfar Shah said that the exact number of people inside the center remains to be ascertained.
"There are women among them, and with the support of the administration of the party, arrangements are being made that all the men are numbered and after that, they will be better isolated."
According to the Department of Primary and Secondary Health Punjab, only 50 people of Tablighi Jamaat have been tested in Raiwand yet.
How does the Tablighi community work and why is it concerned?
The Tablighi Jamaat is not just confined to Pakistan but is spread all over the world. It is the largest gathering in Bangladesh. There is a special mechanism for the formation of Tablighi groups in the community, but the groups are mainly formed at the district level centers.
Groups from different districts come first to the district center, where they are divided into small groups of eight to ten people and sent to mosques in different areas. These groups live and preach in the same mosques on the same day.
During the preaching work, he also patrols the streets and invites people to come to the mosque as well as being informed about the basic members of the religion, such as the correct method of prayer and other issues. Hadiths are also recited to people in mosques and further preached.
Throughout the process, the people of Tablighi meet and interact with most people living in the local area. That is why if a publicity member confirms Corona, the entire area is being closed.
How are the Communication Groups being searched?
The CCPO Lahore, Zulfiqar Hameed, told the BBC that a list of groups based on information obtained from Tablighi Jamaat has been given to the administration of all districts who are looking for them on their own.
Deputy Commissioner Lahore Danish Afzal told the BBC that instructions had been issued to all the gangs from Raiwind Center, to isolate or disassemble themselves within the districts where they were located.
Talking to the BBC, Deputy Commissioner Gujrat Khurram Shahzad said that some Tablighi members were isolated in Tablighi centers set up at the district level while those who were in mosques in different villages, etc. were kept in Quarantina.
"In addition to the information we receive from the publicity center, we are also looking for them with the help of local district administration and law enforcement agencies. If someone has a virus certificate then the area where it is located will be closed. '
The same procedure is also used for those who attend the preaching sessions and show signs of it. At the same time, those who come in contact with the command and control centers are tracked.
Why didn't the preaching gathering be stopped?
According to CCPO Zulfiqar Hameed, the gathering in the second week of March was basically five days, which was canceled after two nights.
But could these two nights also be saved? SP President Lahore Ghazanfar Shah Ni told the BBC that the organizers of the Tablighi Jamaat had been talked about, but they had said that all their arrangements had already been made, buses had been paid. The villages were arranged and all preparations were completed.
However, the first night and second night of the gathering also rained and the field was filled with water. The gathering was then restricted.
Source: BBC
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