Don't mention Nizamuddin Markaz in bulletins on COVID-19: Delhi Minorities Commission to health dept

The Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) has asked the city's health department to stop mentioning Nizamuddin Markaz in its daily bulletins on coronavirus cases.

In a letter to the secretary, Delhi Health department, chairman of the Commission Zafarul Islam Khan asked the department to drop any mention of "religious undertones" in its daily bulletins.

The daily bulletins update the number of fresh coronavirus cases and deaths due to the epidemic including figures of those who were evacuated from Tablighi Jamat Markaz after they were stranded there due to lockdown.

As per the last updated bulletin on Wednesday, the total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi were 669 including 426 from the Markaz.

"Such thoughtless classification is feeding into the Islamophobia agenda of the media and Hindutva forces and has been easily turned into a handle to attack Muslims across the country," Khan alleged in his letter.

Muslims are being "attacked" in various areas, calls are being made for their "social boycott", and a boy was "lynched" in the northwest Delhi, he mentioned in his letter.

TheWorld Health Organisation(WHO) has taken cognisance of this phenomenon and its Emergency Programme Director Mike Ryan has said countries should not profile novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in terms of religion or any other criteria, stated the letter.

The Union health ministry too has said that despite all precautions, if anybody catches the infection, it is not their fault.

Its advisory has requested citizens to "never spread names or identity" of those affected or under quarantine in their locality on the social media, Khan said in the letter. The letter requested to the Health department to stop mention of any data which has religious undertones and which can be exploited for political or communal purposes by "vested interests".