Go back home: Tabligh Jamaat to followers

The Bangladesh unit of the Tabligh Jamaat, an Islamic missionary movement, has instructed all followers to return home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Tabligh Jamaat leader M Yunus Sikder issued a notice on Tuesday citing the government’s order restricting visits to places of worship across the country.

“It has been unanimously decided that everyone must take the government order into account and follow it in your own districts,” Sikder said in the statement, referring to the notice issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs earlier.

Participants of all congregations, a 40-day travel from one mosque to another to attend lectures and call people to prayers, were asked to return home with the help of administration if necessary and say prayers at home.

A member of Tabligh Jamaat told bdnews24.com on the condition of anonymity that the government order bars them from continuing their conduct, so everyone was asked to return home. He also mentioned that no foreigners were attending those congregations and that all foreign visitors are safe.

In South Asia, Tabligh Jamaat congregations have been widely linked to the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier on Tuesday, three more Tabligh Jamaat men have been reported infected in Manikganj’s Singair area where they have been kept in isolation.

Pakistan reported that around 20,000 people who attended a Tabligh Jamaat programme in Lahore were put into quarantines and thousands more who attended the programme were being trailed due to suspicion of infection.