Mosques remained open in the country on Friday, even as the coronavirus pandemic is spreading fast and much of the country has shut down.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is relying on restricting the size of congregations attending mosques and advice to stay at home from religious groups like the Islamic Ideology Council. Some provinces have also issued their own lockdown orders to prevent people from gathering in mosques, especially for Friday prayers. In Sindh, a complete lockdown was announced from noon until 3 pm on Friday, and anyone found on the streets was to be arrested. However, the government’s call for ‘complete lockdown’ on Friday from noon to 3 pm was defied by some mosques as congregational prayers were held as per routine.
Majority of the people who attended the congregations and the prayer leaders who led them were of the view that they have left the current situation to the ‘Will of God’ and no harm will befall them unless it was Divine Will.
“The government and police are making statements to create a sense of fear.
Nothing will happen. Karachi is a city of 20 million, the government cannot implement its decision in every nook and cranny,” said the prayer leader of the Jamia Mosque Quba.
Out of the four mosques in the area, only one was open for Friday congregation. Despite an announcement from mosques to pray at home, around three to four dozen people attended the congregational prayers at Jamia Mosque Quba.
Reports from different areas of Karachi suggested that the majority of mosques followed government orders, however, some continued to hold regular prayers.
In other towns and cities of the province, including Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions, the doors of most mosques were locked with only four to five people, including the prayer leader, allowed to pray. But in rural areas, especially in villages, the ban could not be implemented. “We have prayed Friday prayers in our Jamia mosque with the same amount of people,” Abdul Hanan, who lives in a village in the Kamber Shahdadkot district, said via phone. “The partial ban is only in cities and towns, people here pray five times a day without any fear,” he added.
Police said its officials were assaulted after they stopped congregational prayers from taking place on Friday. Police said a local mosque’s Imam led the Friday prayers despite the three-hour complete lockdown in place in the Karachi’s Liaquatabad area. Upon violation, police officials tried to stop the prayers but were attacked by the violators. “People were instigated by the Imam when police asked them to stop the congregational prayers,” it stated. Two policemen were assaulted by people, who later had to find cover at a citizen’s home. In Punjab, where 60% of Pakistan’s 220 million people live, checkpoints were set up in major cities stopping people from congregating. Still, mosques remained open in several areas, even as they have been shut down across much of the Middle East and elsewhere.
