Kashmiri girl urges citizens to set aside differences, pay heed to PM's advice to defeat COVID-19

As the Centre is urging all communities to adhere to social distancing and other measures to prevent coronavirus transmission, a young girl from the Kashmir Valley has urged people to follow Prime Minister's Narendra Modi's advice and set aside differences of religion and caste to win the battle against the deadly virus.

In a video message shared by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Twitter, Rifat, a Class 10 student, from Baramulla, requested to all people across community lines to pay heed to the Prime Minister's advice to contain coronavirus spread.

"I am Rifat from Baramulla in Kashmir Valley. Today, our nation is facing one of the biggest crisis, which is COVID-19. This is the time to set aside differences of religion, caste and class. It is the time to help each other," she said in the video.

The young girl urged the people to come together and extend help to the needy by giving donations.

"Let all of us serve the nation and extend help to the poor. Let's do charity (zakat). We all should pay heed to the Prime Minister's advice. When all of us will come together in this war, we will surely win," she stressed.

In a message to the nation on April 3, Modi urged countrymen to strictly follow social distancing norm in order to keep coronavirus infection at bay and help prevent its spread."The key thing, at this hour, is that we all need to confine ourselves in homes. No one should come out on the streets. Please remember that maintaining social distancing is the most important thing to do and it should not be broken under any circumstances. This is the panacea for breaking the corona chain," he had appealed to the people during his address.

The young girl's message assumes significance as several cases have been registered against people in wake of Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin area.

Earlier in the day, a youth from Narayanbagad village in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district was arrested for allegedly disrupting communal harmony by spreading rumours and making objectionable comments on social media in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat case.The Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana.

Meanwhile, in Jammu and Kashmir, 109 people have tested positive for COVID-19, including four cured and discharged and two deaths, as per the Union Health Ministry.