Delhi govt replaces 'Markaz Masjid' in COVID-19 health bulletin with 'Special Operation'

In a recent development, the Delhi government on April 11 dropped the name 'Markaz Masjid' from its daily health bulletin of COVID-19 status and replaced the column with 'Special Operation'.

The Tablighi Jamaat event, which was held at Markaz building in Delhi's Nizamuddin area last month, emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering.

As per the bulletin on April 11, 712 COVID-19 cases in Delhi are related to the Tablighi Jamaat gathering which has led to a spike in cases in the national capital.

According to the bulletin released by the government on Saturday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has now reached 1069 in Delhi after 166 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours.

The toll due to the infection now stands at 19 after 5 deaths were reported on Saturday.

Replacing 'Markaz Masjid' with 'Special Operations' is a key development as it has come days after the Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) raised the matter with the Health Department asking it to drop any mention of Tablighi Jamaat event in its daily bulletins on COVID-19 cases in Delhi.

In a letter to the Director/Secretary, Delhi Health Department, the DMC Chairman Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan had said, "Your bulletins of coronavirus victims are showing a separate column 'Markaz Masjid'. Such thoughtless classification is feeding into the Islamophobia agenda of the lap media and Hindutva forces and has been easily turned into a handle to attack Muslims across the country. As a result, Muslims are being attacked in various areas, calls are being made for their social boycott, one boy has been lynched in the north-west Delhi village of Harewali, others attacked."

In the letter written earlier this week, the DMC had quoted the World Health Organisation (WHO) stating, "Countries should not profile novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in terms of religion or any other criteria.