LAHORE: Amid reports of violations of the standard operating procedures (SOPs), agreed upon by religious scholars and the government, at 30 percent of the city mosques on the first of Ramazan, the police late on Saturday issued “last warning” to known cleric Allama Ibtisam Elahi Zaeer for not ensuring the precautionary measures against Covid-19 while leading prayers at a mosque.

One of the leading Islamic scholars, Allama Zaheer, was reportedly not observing the SOPs of social distancing at the Jamia Masjid Lawrence Road, Lahore, while leading the congregational prayers.

A senior police official said a couple of days back the Allama was warned against flouting the SOPs when the on-duty government officials observed violation of social distancing during prayers at the mosque.

He said the same violation was again witnessed on Saturday when the Allama was leading the Asr and Magrib prayers there.

When the matter was brought to the notice of the police high-ups, they issued second and last warning to Mr Ibtisam and also held negotiations with him to make him realise the gravity of the pandemic situation the nation was faced with.

Quoting the on-duty staff, the official said though the mosque’s management had marked the spots to ensure social distancing, the people violated the SOPs when the prayer leader asked them to get closer to each other “as per Sunnah”.

Mr Ibtisam, however, later gave an undertaking to the police high-ups that he would follow the SOPs in the letter and spirit, the official said.

He said as per reports most of the violations were being committed at the mosques falling in “B” and category “C” categories, while those in ‘A’ category were giving almost 100 percent compliance with the SOPs. The grand or Jamia mosques of the city like Badshahi Masjid, Data Darbar, Australia Masjid, Masjad-e-Shuhada fall in the ‘A’ category.

The provincial capital has total 4,702 mosques, the official said, adding that the police divided them in A, B and C categories in order to ensure implementation of the SOPs to control the spread of coronavirus. Of these, 190 were declared as ‘A’ category mosques, 666 ‘B’ and 3,846 ‘C’ category mosques.

The official said that 25 per cent of the SOPs violations were reported at the ‘B’ category and 30pc at ‘C’ category mosques.

The reported violations, he said, included non-observance of social distancing, overcrowding and provision of water to perform wuzu (ablution) which had been banned in the 22 SOPs issued by the government in consultation and agreement with the leading Ulema and religious parties leaders of the country, to be observed during Ramazan.

Lahore Operations DIG Rai Babar Saeed confirmed to Dawn that the police issued “last warning” to Allama Ibtisam for violating the SOPs.

He, however, said the number of complaints received on the first day of Ramazan had decreased considerably.

The mosques in “A” category were giving hundred percent compliance with the SOPs, he said.

“We are shifting our focus to the mosques in “B” and “C” categories which are mostly located in the streets and dense localities”, the DIG said.

In addition to the routine deployment of the police force, 277 special enforcement teams had also been fielded in shifts to ensure the SOPs implementation in the city mosques, he said.

“For internal monitoring, the security branch of the police also surveyed 1,000 mosques in various categories”, he said, adding that the report unveiled that 90pc of them were following the SOPs that meant the compliance ratio was improving.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2020