The government had enforced a strict ban across the country this week to restrict Friday prayers. However, people in some areas throng to locals mosques amid coronavirus pandemic. The government imposed the ban after failing to prevent large gatherings last Friday.
However, this week too, people defied the orders. Many incidents across the country were reported where people try to offer prayers in mosques. Similar scenes were seen in Sindh.
The Sindh government had announced a curfew from 12pm to 3pm today, advising people not to come out of their houses for Friday prayers. However, police had to arrest four people including an Imam of a local mosque in Karachi for violating lockdown imposed by the government and inciting violence in Karachi.
According to details, the Imam in the Liaquatabad area was holding Friday congregation prayers despite a ban imposed by the government.
Today when police reportedly tried to stop a Friday prayer congregation at a mosque forcibly in #Karachi’s Liaquatabad, residents reacted violently. #lockdown #SocialDistancing . pic.twitter.com/1MaNI0Am6W
— Zia Ur Rehman (@zalmayzia) April 3, 2020
وائرس یہ لوگ ہیں، کرونا نہیں!
Dozens of People attacked Sindh Police at Liaquatabad Karachi, when they tried to stop gatherings for Friday Prayers..
illiteracy is the greater virus than Corona#Pakistan #Corona #StaySafeStayHome #COVID19 #staysafe pic.twitter.com/6NOJFQKoRD
— D (@Dewan_Ali) April 3, 2020
Tanzeem-ul-Madaris Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan (TMASP) leader Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, who is also the head of Pakistan’s moon-sighting committee had said, “All Friday congregations will continue in mosques across the country.”
Are we our own enemy?
People also took to social media and shared the incidents. May bashed locals in Liaquatabad for not taking the pandemic seriously.
At another large mosque, the front door was firmly shut. And worshippers just entered through a side door. Dozens of them streamed in. There were four vegetable vendors outside, and a few beggars, expectantly waiting for customers.
— Diaa Hadid ضياء حديد (@diaahadid) April 3, 2020
Video: Police officials in Karachi were manhandled and almost lynched while trying to enforce a ban on congregating for Friday prayers. A police mobile was pelted with stones. Recently, an inspector in Punjab was stabbed by a patient who had tested positive. #policing #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/UHSRaGScIE
— Zoha Waseem (@ZohaWaseem) April 3, 2020
People not taking this pandemic seriously is a global problem, and it manifests differently: kids partying in Florida. Australians crowding onto Bondi beach. It manifests in Pakistan through crowding into mosques for Friday prayers, despite orders to curb it by each province
— Diaa Hadid ضياء حديد (@diaahadid) April 3, 2020
The general order last week to restrict attendance at mosques to a maximum of five persons, including the prayer leader, was largely ignored by people last week. Although attendance at mosques went down considerably due to a general fear of infection. However, this week the situation was relatively better.
Initial reports suggested the curfew-like situation in Sindh’s urban areas restricted movement and reduced attendance in mosques this afternoon. Still, some people tried to create a restless situation in the city.
Pakistani authorities on Friday reported 35 deaths from novel coronavirus while the total number of cases surged to 2458. According to details, 928 patients were tested positive for the epidemic in Punjab, 783 in Sindh, 311 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 190 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 169 in Balochistan, 68 in Islamabad and nine in Azad Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CCI) Chairman Dr. Qibla Ayaz on Thursday had also said that coronavirus doesn’t belong to any sect and called for using the word ‘martyr’ for the ones who die from the virus. Talking to media in Islamabad, he had appealed to the public to offer Friday prayer at home amid preventive measures to avoid the spread of coronavirus in the country.
What do you think about the story? Tell us in the comment section below.
