Casting aspersions on the healthcare workers and nurses who accused the Tablighi Jamaat members at quarantine centres of indulging in assault and sexual harassment, the spokesperson of the Nizamuddin based orthodox Muslim organisation, Mujibur Rehman demanded that they should provide ‘proof’ of the attack carried out by the Jamaat members.
Speaking in a show on India TV, Rehman contested the veracity of the claims of assault made by the healthcare workers against the Tablighi Jamaat members who are quarantined at different facilities across the country following the emergence of Markaz Nizamuddin, the headquarter of Tablighi Jamaat, as one of the most potent clusters of the coronavirus in the country.
In the prelude to the debate organised by the India TV in which Tablighi Jamaat spokesperson Mujibur Rehman was one of the participants, the news channel showed an interview of a nurse from a quarantine facility in Delhi who was subjected to assault by the Tablighi Jamaat members admitted there. The nurse said that all her notions about Muslims and Tablighi Jamaat members being falsely maligned were shattered when she came under the attack by the Jamaat members. She recounted how the delinquents of Tablighi Jamaat tried to assault her and force feed the food meant for them.
“I am not going to trust these folks again. All my illusions about Tablighi Jamaat members have been shattered. They tried to seize hold of me and shove the food meant for them down my throat. I am somehow managed to break free from their grip but then they pulled me from my back, ” the nurse said.
Describing her ordeal, she further added, “I felt extremely terrible that I was subjected to assault by the Jamaat members. What was the need to attack a lady? If they did not like the food, they could have refused to eat it. Why assault me? I was simply doing my duty and providing them with the food which was made available at the quarantine centre. In fact, on several occasions, I paid from my own pocket to fulfil their food demands. Jamaat members from Indonesia requested me for tea. I had bought ingredients and helped them.”
However, the assertions made by the nurse did not sit well with the Tablighi Jamaat spokesperson Mujibur Rehman. Defending the Tablighi Jamaat ruffians, Rehman demanded the India TV anchor to show the nurse’s torn clothes as a proof to her claims of assault by the Tablighi Jamaat members.
“Since your TV reporter is there along with the nurse, why don’t you ask the nurse to show her torn clothes. They did not show her torn clothes. Once they show that, then I will put my point across,” Rehman said.
When called out for his shamelessness by the debate host for asking the assaulted nurse to present her torn apron as a proof of attack, Rehman steadfastly continued defending the Tablighi Jamaat wrongdoers.
Past instances of Tablighi Jamaat members’ unruly behaviour with healthcare professionals
There have been several instances across the country where members of Tablighi Jamaat have assaulted doctors, nurses, ward boys and other healthcare workers involved in treating them. Tablighi Jamaat members accommodated in Diesel Shed Training School Hostel Quarantine Centre and RPF Barrack Quarantine Centre in Delhi were found throwing tantrums and making unreasonable food demands. They also spat all over the quarantine facility and over doctors, nurses and other workers attending to them.
In addition, the Tablighi Jamaat members held up in Ghaziabad hospital had run around naked and made lewd gestures for female staff at the hospital. The Chief Medical Officer of the District MMG Hospital in Ghaziabad has written a letter to the Ghaziabad police informing about the criminal behaviour of the Jamaatis. Following the harassment of female staff at the hands of Jamaat members, the government had ordered that no female staffers would be assigned to the wards where Jamaat members are being kept.
Tablighi Jamaat members housed at Narela quarantine centre had also created a ruckus at the isolation facility and took a dump in the corridor. An FIR was registered which said when sanitation staff went to clean, two people were found to have done latrine outside room no 212. The camp in-charge said that the Tablighi Jamaat members were imperilling the containment measures through their reckless behaviour.
