Even as the deadly coronavirus spreads across the country, the anti-India ‘protestors’ at Shaheen Bagh refuse to vacate the place claiming that they are not afraid of the Coronavirus as the protest was a ‘call from Allah”, reports Times Now.
According to the reports, the protestors at Shaheen Bagh are not ready to evict the protest site despite the COVID-19 outbreak.
As reporters from Times Now spoke to protestors, one of the lady protestors claimed that it was a ‘call from Allah’ to protest at Shaheen Bagh and she is not afraid of the global epidemic of Coronavirus.
“This is the call from Allah. If the government is so concerned about us, they should first withdraw the law. We are respectfully following the diktat of Arvind Kejriwal who had asked us to comply with the ban on gatherings of over 50 people,” said a lady ‘protestor’.
Watch: TIMES NOW’s Wajihulla speaks to the Shaheen Bagh protesters after they refuse to call off their protest amid the #Coronavirus scare. | #IndiaFightsCoronavirus pic.twitter.com/FFSSSPI6Pk
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 18, 2020
The lady further claimed that the Modi government is afraid of them and stated that the recent directives by the government to restrict gatherings at Shaheen Bagh was a trick to weaken their ‘movement’. “We do not fear Coronavirus,” said the burqa-clad lady.
As the reporter said there is a risk of the virus being contracted to each protestor due to such mass gathering, the lady protestor went on to note that the risk of them being infected with the virus will exist even at their homes and added that there was no question of vacating the protest site at any cost.
Another burqa-clad protestor echoed the similar statements as her colleague at Shaheen Bagh, stated that they are following the diktat given by Arvind Kejriwal as they are protesting in batches of less than 50 persons at a given time.
Recently, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had invoked the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 and declared a new set of restrictions to limit the spread of the highly contagious disease.
In order to flout the diktat, the Muslim protestors gathered there in smaller groups and have now decided that they would not end the protest, but spilt themselves into groups of 50 and take precautions by sitting at a certain distance.
In an act recklessness and disregard of the government appeal to avoid large gatherings and crowded places, the Shaheen Bagh protestors have been continuing with their so-called protests at a time the pandemic has shut down the world. The ‘protestors’ have apparently been praying and reading the Quran at the protest site, believing that praying to Allah would safeguard them from the coronavirus crisis.
For about three months now, the anti-Indian protesters in Shaheen Bagh have blocked one of the busiest thoroughfares in the national capital in protest against the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act. In addition, there have been allegations that the protesters at Shaheen Bagh are treating it as an independent enclave, with strict regulations enforced in allowing on who joins them in their protest based on their ideological inclinations.
