Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad Kandhalwi who is now in the eye of a storm over a spurt in coronavirus cases in the country following a congregation at Delhi’s Nizamuddin area, was not in his hometown Kandhla in Shamli district of western Uttar Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.
Shamli‘s Superintendent of police, Vineet Jaiswal said that he had no information about Maulana Saad Kandhalvi’s arrival in the town.
Maulana Saad’s relative Maulana Badrul Hasan said he usually stayed at the Nizamuddin Markaz and visited his home in Kandhla for a day or two every month.
But he didn’t come to Kandhla on Wednesday as claimed by a section of the media, Hasan said.
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Maulana Saad has been in the news after at least eight people, who participated in a religious gathering at the Tablighi Jamaat’s Markaz (centre) in Delhi between March 13 and 15, died of coronavirus.
Saad and five other top functionaries of the Tablighi Jamaat were booked on Tuesday after its headquarters in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area emerged as the single biggest source of Covid-19 infections in the country.
Maulana Hasan said, “Maulana Saad is not a fugitive as presented in a section of the media. He is in Delhi and we support every action and order of the government during this crisis.”
{{/usCountry}}Maulana Hasan said, “Maulana Saad is not a fugitive as presented in a section of the media. He is in Delhi and we support every action and order of the government during this crisis.”
{{/usCountry}}He claimed neither Maulana Saad nor other organisers had received a copy of the FIR lodged by the Delhi Police against the cleric.
“Media trials should be stopped against the Markaz and its organizers,” he said.
Maulana Saad Kandhalwi is the great grandson of Muhammad Iliyas Kandhalwi, who organised a group of young madarsa graduates from Deoband and Saharanpur in early 1920s and sent them to Mewat to establish a network of mosques and Islamic schools. Later, people of South Asia started calling these devotees ‘Tablighi’ and the organisation became popular as Tablighi Jamaat.
Maulana Hasan said it was an apolitical organisation with over 20 crore (200 million) members across the world.
He said Maulana Saad preferred to keep a low profile during his visits to his hometown where he has an ancestral house in Maulvian locality of the town.
“He is a cult figure. Within no time, a big crowd gathers to meet him. Therefore, he avoids meeting people here in order to stay in peace for a day or two,” said Maulana Hasan.
Maulana Saad was born in Kandhla in May 1965. After pursuing a religious education under his father’s tutelage, he studied at the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband and thereafter completed Dars-e-Nizami studies from the Kasiful Uloom madarsa of Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz.