Former HP CM Shanta Kumar calls for ban on Tablighi Jamaat

Senior BJP leader in Himachal Pradesh Shanta Kumar on Sunday sought an immediate ban on the Tablighi Jamaat, claiming it is responsible for spreading coronavirus in half of the country. "Their insolence has not stopped. Stones were pelted on health workers. I want to say to the government that enough has been tolerated," Kumar, a former chief minister, said in a Facebook post.

"It is because of the Tablighi Jamaat that the disease spread to almost half of the country. Hundreds will die," he said. "Now immediately ban this Jamaat," the veteran politician added. The Tablighi Jamaat's Markaz (headquarters) in Delhi's Nizamuddin West emerged as a coronavirus hotspot as hundreds of people, who attended a religious congregation there in the second week of March, tested positive for COVID-19.

Several others spread across the country, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat, are suspected to be carriers of the deadly virus. In an apparent reference to Kangra MP Kishan Kapoor and Mandi MP Ramswaroop Sharma, who recently returned to the state from Delhi despite the lockdown, he said, "Some friends have rightly raised questions about our two MPs." Without naming the parliamentarians, Kumar said, "I want to say clearly that the law is for everybody and the law is to be obeyed. They say they had taken permission." PTI DJI IJT