KOHAT: A strategy has been adopted to help effectively implement the 20- point agenda reached between the government and the religious scholars aimed at maintaining social distancing during Taraweeh and other congregational prayers in mosques to check spread of Covid-19.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by district police officer Mansoor Aman. District Khateeb Mufti Shafiullah, prayer leaders, deputy medical superintendent of KDA Teaching Hospital Dr Younis Nadeem, SP operations Tahir Iqbal, all the DSPs and SHOs were in attendance.

The DPO and Dr Nadeem stressed the need for keeping a three-foot distance between people during the Taraweeh and other congregational prayers. They asked prayer leaders to highlight the precautions against Covid-19 in their sermons. They were asked to bar children and old people from entering the mosques and aske the faithful to do ablutions at homes.

The police officers said it was the responsibility of ulema to guide and teach the people about Covid-19 precautions. They said controlling the pandemic was not possible without the cooperation of people.

DILAPIDATED BUILDINGS INSPECTION: Tehsil municipal officer Mohammad Shoaib has asked the people living in dilapidated houses to contact the TMA so that technical teams could be sent for their inspection to avoid any untoward incident.

It may be recalled that a house had collapsed due to rains in the city claiming several lives a fortnight back.

Mr Shoaib also appealed to the people that they should point out such buildings, markets and houses in their vicinity so all precautionary measures could be taken to avoid any unpleasant incident.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2020