Violation of section 144: Another case registered against Maulana Aziz, others

The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police have registered another case against former Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and others for holding Friday congregational prayers in violation of Section 144 imposed in the city in the wake of spread of coronavirus.

The city police have registered a case at Aabpara Police Station against Abdul Aziz and Abdus Sattar for disobeying a government order, as well as not making precautionary arrangements at the mosque.

According to the Aabpara police, Aziz gathered people at Lal Masjid for Friday prayers despite a ban on congregational prayer imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The officials of the district administration informed Aziz about ban on Friday prayers but he ignored. The city police also registered cases against several shopkeepers and individuals for violations of standard operating procedure (SOPs) devised for controlling spread of the COVID-19. Police also conducted raids at various markets and closed those shops, which were not exempted from lockdown.

Following exemption to hardware, stationery and book shops, hairdressers, auto workshop, tyre puncture, spare parts shops and tailor shops from lockdown, by the government, people rushed to markets but neither customers nor shopkeepers have adopted the SOPs.

Huge rush of motorists was witnessed on various roads of the twin cities.

The number of coronavirus cases further increased in the city and the total number of confirmed patients reached 163 on Saturday. Majority of the Covid-19 positive cases have been reported from the city's rural area Bhara Kahu, Shehzad Town, Lohi Bher, Taramri and some other areas, an official said. The country's tally of the Covid-19 infections has increased to 7,481. According to the official data, Punjab has 3,391 cases followed by Sindh 2,217, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1,077, Balochistan 335, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 48.

Till the filling of this report, 1,832 coronavirus patients have so far recovered, and 143 have died across the country.