COVID-19: DMC alleges targeting of Muslims, seeks report from Delhi Police

The Delhi Minorities Commission has issued notices to the police commissioner seeking action against an alleged attempt to boycott Muslims in the national capital's Shastri Nagar area and a purported attack on a youth from the community in Bawana, the panel said on Wednesday.

The DMC has sought a report from the commissioner within a week on the two matters.

While the notice in connection with the Shastri Nagar matter was issued on Tuesday, the one for the Bawana incident was issued on Monday.

"The Delhi Minorities Commission in its notice attached a video from Shastri Nagar in Delhi which was shot on April 5. A group of people are seen holding a meeting on the street. They are planning to stop Muslims from entering their colony and asking people in other colonies to do the same," DMC Chairperson Zafarul Islam Khan said.

In the second notice, the commission said a youth, Mahboob, who had attended a Tablighi Jamaat conference in Bhopal, was beaten and "seriously" injured in Bawana's Harewali village.

It asked the police commissioner to take appropriate action and ensure visible police presence. It also called for sending out a strong message that any disturbance of law and order will not be tolerated.

Thousands of people who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month have tested positive for coronavirus, causing the number of infections in the country to rise rapidly.

Many state governments have said that Tablighi Jamaat members constitute a major chunk of their total COVID-19 cases.

On Sunday, the Union health ministry had said that the rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is at present 4.1 days but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation had not come, it would have been 7.4 days.

The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 5,194 and the death toll climbed to 149 on Wednesday, according to the ministry.