The OC of Sarail Police Station in Brahmanbaria has been withdrawn after tens of thousands of people joined the funeral prayers of an Islamic party leader ignoring a lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak. The Police Headquarters in a statement on Saturday night cited Shahadat Hossain Titu‘s failure to take proper steps to prevent the gathering as the reason behind the decision to withdraw him. Local administrators were out of their wits to explain the massive turnout at the Namaz-e-Janaza for Moulana Zubair Ahmad Ansari when the government has already imposed curbs on congregational prayers at mosques to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The rows of mourners stretched from the premises of a madrasa, all the way down to Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, raising concerns about the risks of contagion particularly in light of the recent surge in coronavirus cases and deaths throughout the country. Top Islamic leaders in the district, madrasa students and ordinary people attended the funeral overseen by Ansari’s son Hafiz Moulana Asadullah. The police were present but they remained on the sidelines. Shahadat earlier said many people from as far as Dhaka came to join the funeral prayers. “We never thought there would be this many people. There was nothing we could do once the crowd began streaming in,” he said. Source: bdnews24.com
