India’s external and internal intelligence agencies failed to read, assess and report the warning signals emerging from the Tablighi Jamaat stable within and outside the country.
As Tablighi Jamaat continued its ijtema (congregation) in Kuala Lumpur (Feb 27-Mar 1), Lahore (March 13), Sulawesi, Selatan in Indonesia (Mar 18), 26 Covid-19 positive Jamaat members were reported in Malaysia and 45 in Lahore and an unknown numbers in Indonesia. But India’s external Intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) did not report the viral epidemic at Tablighi events in the region or issue an alert to the effect.
Similary, the Intelligence Bureau ignored the foreign Tablighi members’ movement across the country spreading the pandemic to the hinterland.
The issue of the Jamaat’s congregation in Kuala Lumpur was highlighted there in the media due to the threat it posed to public health amid the coronavirus pandemic. Taking cognisance of the Jamaat-related developments in Malaysia, Indonesia did not allow the Tablighi to hold the congregation from March 17 to 19. However, a number of the Tablighis who had already arrived on the venue in Indonesia infected a number of co-participants.
While the COVID-19 outbreak trend was developing in the region in Tablighi’s congregations, hundreds of the Jamaat members were assembled in the Nizamuddin area despite concerned citizens expressing concerns to the authorities over the presence of so many people in a relatively small facility amid the push for social distancing.
The returning jamaats were given clear instructions by Tablinghi Jamaat chief Mohammad Saad to access more and more mosques after going back from Nizamuddin.
Scores of foreign Tablighi members spread across the country, spreading the coronavirus to the interiors of the country and posing a major threat to public health amid the ongoing lockdown in the country to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is not the first time that the Research and Analysis Wing, responsible for gathering external intelligence, did not meet the expectations of the Government as it could not assess the mood in the European Union after the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act by the Parliament here. A resolution against the CAA was moved recently and the agency was caught unawares.
Likewise, the IB has also recorded back to back lapses with the agency not being able to generate any credible inputs ahead of the communal riots in the national capital last month.