Hyderabad: The upcoming month-long holy Ramzan festival, which consists of daily mass prayers by devotees, has become a major challenge for the authorities who are grappling with the task of managing the Covid-19 lockdown currently. Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are clueless about handling the situation in case they had to withdraw the lockdown by 3 May. Ramzan is likely to be on 24 May.
Even partial relaxation of lockdown norms from 20 April too has to be dealt with caution by the states which believe any resumption of mass activity would involve risk as the devotees insist on offering mass prayers at their workplace. Keeping this in view, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has called for a Cabinet meeting on Sunday. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan, too, may hold one next week.
The holy month of Ramzan begins from Friday, 24 April, and will conclude on the same day next month, though the exact date would be decided by Muslim religious leaders later. Muslims will observe fasting day time and call it off after sunset. They offer mass prayers at mosques before calling off fasting evening. Officials are apprehensive of the possible situation arising out of these mass prayers in Hyderabad city, especially the Muslim dominated Old City.
This month of Ramzan is also marked by offering of Iftar parties in the evenings. Hyderabad is known for a large number of Iftar parties and various political parties and the state government and the police department too host them. The bigger risk of mass violations of social distancing is expected on the day of Ramzan which is likely to be on 24 May, as the city of Hyderabad would witness at least a million Muslims coming out and offering prayers at various mosques and Idgah grounds. According to officials, there are around 200 mass prayer grounds, including three or four major ones in the city. Already, Jamia Nizamia Islamic University has issued an appeal urging “all Muslims to offer payers at their homes and not come on the streets as there is lockdown till 3 May”. Some other religious heads based out of Hyderabad too issued similar appeals and AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi too made such pleas. They all referred to the present lockdown. Some police and other officials raised concerns over the possibility of devotees sticking to these appeals once the lockdown is over by 3 May. “We may enforce lockdown till 3 May and prevent all kinds of mass gatherings, including religious ones. But, what if there is no lockdown after 3 May and how can we prevent them later?” asked a top police official at a Covid review meeting here this week. Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar who chaired the meeting had no answer to it. But there is a general unanimity among all those involved in Covid crisis management on this issue. “We will bring it to the notice of the higher ups (CM) and will act accordingly,” said a senior officer who was present at the meeting. Senior officials of Andhra, too, echoed the same concerns on this issue. This issue has become a sensitive point to the administration in view of the painful role of attendees of the Tablighi-e-Jamaat meeting in Delhi last month. Around 90% coronavirus positive cases in both the Telugu speaking states are related to those who returned from Delhi’s Nizamuddin. As many as 645 out of the total 700 positive cases in Telangana (by Friday) are from them. Same is the situation in AP as around 90% of the total 560 cases are related to these attendees and almost all the deceased—19 in Telangana and nine in AP—were from these segments. More than this factual data, the authorities are concerned about lack of cooperation from the families and neighbours of the Covid patients, who contacted the virus from Tablighi attendees. There are several incidents of public attacking and stone pelting on ambulances and vehicles carrying Covid patients to hospitals. All the cases—around half a dozen—of attacks on doctors and nurses in the last three weeks are related to this group. Three persons were arrested, perhaps for the first time in the country, for these attacks in Hyderabad on Thursday.
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