Syed Ali Ahmed | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, APRIL 7—With a section of media spreading rumours that Nizamuddin Markaz of Tablighi Jamaat has become the ‘hotspot’ and ‘epicentre’ of coronavirus spread in India, incidents of hate attacks on Muslims and their trade and business boycott have begun pouring in from different parts of the country.
Reports coming from different states say that Muslims vendors selling fruit and vegetable are not allowed to enter the non-Muslim residential areas. Not only that, they are also not allowed to operate in vegetable and fruit markets where the fruit and vegetable sellers are Hindu in majority.
The reason: every Muslim is being identified with Tablighi Jamaat that held a congregation in Delhi after breakout of COVID-19 and the government, in its official bulletins, said that one-third of coronavirus infections are related to persons having attended the Tablighi meet and their contacts.
This social boycott and hate action against Muslims are going on despite the national BJP president J P Nadda having prominently said that coronavirus epidemic should not be communalised.
Videos have been circulating on social media platforms in which people of majority community are saying that Muslims are spreading Coronavirus and ask Muslim traders not to enter their localities.
In two separate incidents-one each in Haryana and Delhi-Muslims were attacked. Family of Atif Warsi in Gurugram was attacked by some youths minutes after the 9 pm lights-out on Sunday, while 30-year old youth Shamshad Ali was thrashed by a group of men in Harewali village in Bawana area of outer Delhi on the suspicion that he was part of a conspiracy “conspiracy” to spread COVID-19.
In his complaint to police, Warsi alleged that around 9.15 pm, four persons, including his neighbours Sonu and Bhutta climbed the stairs to his house and accused his family of shooting a video of them. They allegedly abused Warsi’s mother and threatened them to leave the locality. A little later Sonu returned and hit Warsi and his cousin Mubin Khan with bricks. Thereafter, Warsi’s father made a PCR call and rushed the two to civil hospital in Sector 10.
The Gurugram Police registered a case of promoting enmity on grounds of religion and criminal intimidation and arrested six persons.
In Harewali village, Delhi Police arrested three persons – Naveen, Prashant and Pramod –for allegedly beating up a man, Shamshad Ali, who had returned home after spending 45 days at a religious gathering in Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh.
When Ali reached the village, some miscreants spread a rumour that he was a part of a group planning to spread COVID – 19 in the village. He was forcibly caught from his house by some youths and was taken to a farm on outskirts of the village and thrashed, police said.
The incident took place on Sunday afternoon and was reported by one of the accused on his mobile phone.
In yet another incident, Gurugram police arrested four persons for allegedly opening fire outside Jama Masjid at Dhankot village.
Such hate reports are coming from other regions of the country also after exaggerated coverage of the COVID-19 linking a large number of cases with Tablighi congregation in Delhi.
Mohammed Nadeem told India Tomorrow over phone that he used to sell oranges near Haldighati crossroads in Jaipur. “A woman came to buy oranges from me. While I was weighing the fruit, she asked my name. As soon as I told her name, she told me that she would not buy from Muslims. She left without oranges”.
Another fruit seller Mohammed Sajid said that he sold bananas. “As usual, I was carrying bananas on a ‘thela’ in residential area of Jaipur. An ‘aunty’from the second asked for the bananas. When I was weighing it, she asked for my name. When I told her that I am a Muslim, she immediately refused to buy from me. She asked me not to come to her street again”. He said that a police man in the street threatened to break my legs if he went there again.
Muslim fruit and vegetable sellers from Mustafabad alleged that they are now not allowed to sell in Hindu majority Dayalpur area. Furqan, a resident of Mustafabad, told India Tomorrow, “some vegetable sellers had gone to Dayalpur but were told by local Hindu residents that they would not buy vegetables from you because you are Muslims and you are spreading coronavirus”.
A vegetable vendor of Khatauli village in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh said that two days he was turned away by Hindu residents of neighbouring villages saying, “you are Jamaatis and you spread diseases”.
