Islamic seminary decries media for communalising Tablighi incident, seeks ban

Prestigious Deoband-based Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, on Sunday, decried the media for what it alleged was 'communalising' the Tablighi Jamaat incident in Delhi and sought a ban on it.

In a statement, the vice-chancellor of the seminary, which is based at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, about 500 kilometres from Lucknow, Mufti Abul Quasim Nomani appealed to all those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi, to come forward and get themselves tested immediately.

''Some narrow-minded elements are trying to give communal colour to the incident even in this hour of crisis. We demand the Centre to ban such elements (especially media),'' Nomani said.

He also urged the government to provide all possible medical care to Tablighi Jamaat members who had tested positive for coronavirus.

The Deoband seminary remarks came shortly before Saharanpur police refuted reports published in a section of the media that quarantined Tablighi Jamaat members had demanded non-veg food and defecated in the open.

''We had conducted a probe into the reports and found they were incorrect. We categorically reject such reports,'' the district police said in a message on the Twitter handle on Sunday.