DHAKA: On Saturday, tens of thousands of people defied a nationwide coronavirus lockdown in Bangladesh to attend a top Islamic preacher’s funeral, even as authorities are battling a surge in virus cases.
Police had decided with Jubayer Ahmad Ansari’s family that only 50 people should attend the funeral in Sarail’s eastern town due to the danger of spreading the disease.
But local police chief Shahadat Hossain said officers were unable to stop the crowds that came to honor the famous preacher and seminary head of the 55-year-old who died on Friday. “People were coming up in the water,” he said.
Organizers said the funeral was attended by about 100,000. Helping Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, Shah Ali Farhad has also said there was more than 100,000 present.
On 26 March Bangladesh imposed a nationwide lockdown as 168 million people spread coronavirus throughout the world.
The health department said the number of cases on Saturday had increased by more than 300 to around 2.200, while nine more deaths in one day had brought the toll to 84.
Authorities performed a few studies and experts say there are more cases than officially acknowledged.
New rules prohibit the participation of more than five people in prayers in the 300,000 mosques in the country.
The prime minister called on Bangladeshis to pray at home at the start of this month’s Ramazan festival. But a number of prominent clerics have been calling on Muslims to turn out for daily prayer in their masses.
At least 25,000 people attended a Muslim prayer meeting in a field in Raipur’s southern city last month to chant ‘healing verses’ to rid the world of the deadly virus.
