Pakistan: Funeral for Islamic Cleric Who Died with Coronavirus Symptoms Draws Thousands

Officials in the city of Lahore, Pakistan, believe that the funeral this weekend of the head of the radical Islamist group Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Khadim Hussain Rizvi, was the largest such event in the history of the city.

In addition to the densely packed crowd, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, Lahore police deployed at least 1,000 officers to ensure the event would remain peaceful.

Rizvi, 54, died last week after suffering from a fever and difficulty breathing. TLP leaders and family members have not stated that Rizvi was a confirmed Chinese coronavirus case or clarified if he was ever tested. The symptoms he experienced before his death are among those common in coronavirus patients.

“Though organisers and police kept telling workers to observe coronavirus SOPs [standard operating procedures], it was neither possible nor observed due to the number of people,” the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported of the event. “It was very rare for someone seen wearing a mask, stoking fears of the Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] spread in the country.”

Pakistan is experiencing a surge in coronavirus infections that occurred shortly after a wave of protests and riots against French President Emmanuel Macron for opposing the beheading of a schoolteacher.

The testing positivity ratio in the country — the number of positive tests compared to negative — reached its highest level since the pandemic began in Pakistan on Monday. Authorities announced school closures beginning this week. Hospitalizations have doubled in the past two weeks.

The teacher, Samuel Paty, had shown students cartoons of Islamic figure Muhammad before a teen Chechen immigrant beheaded him. “Blasphemy” against Islam, which includes depicting the physical form of Muhammad, is a crime in Pakistan and blasphemy about Muhammad personally is punishable by death.

Rizvi’s last public event, taking place on November 15, was an anti-France rally attracting 5,000 men. Rizvi’s TLP organized the event and the cleric reportedly attended the rally despite reportedly already feeling ill that weekend. The rally became a march — illegally, as government officials did not grant a permit for a moving march — from Rawalpindi to neighboring Islamabad, where about 3,000 police officers were deployed to keep the peace. Authorities also used storage containers to block most of the major roads leading into the capital to protect property there, including the French embassy.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, an Islamist who demanded this year that the United Nations implement a global law criminalizing blasphemy, has implemented a series of “standard operating procedures” at restaurants and other businesses to slow the spread of coronavirus. He has canceled political rallies for his ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), but not mandated the cancelation of political rallies for any other party or political organization, instead suggesting cancelations to them.

Despite the fact that Rizvi likely died of the highly contagious coronavirus disease and Khan has urged the public not to organize large gatherings, thousands flooded Lahore to honor Rizvi on Saturday. Police have not published official crowd estimates, but photos show men tightly packed together on city streets, praying and kneeling together. The crowd also swarmed Rizvi’s hearse, which was covered in flower petals. Few appear to be wearing masks.

The funeral was also a procession, so the crowd, despite its size, managed to snake through the city following orders broadcast on a loudspeaker. The event reportedly caused severe traffic problems as every entry point to the city was blocked off. The Pakistani newspaper Dawn called it “by all accounts the biggest ever funeral prayers in the history of the city.”

The newspaper estimated, citing witnesses at the event, that “hundreds of thousands” of people attended. Dawn also noted that the size of the crowd also resulted in some logistical problems for the funeral, as organizers struggled to bring the hearse to the mosque where Rizvi was buried and to take the body out of the car. Rizvi’s remains arrived at his burial site four hours late.

At the funeral, Saad Rizvi, the cleric’s son, appeared to assume the leadership of the TLP.

“I will fulfill the mission of my father,” he reportedly told the crowd. His remarks increased suspicions that TLP would continue to hold mass events after Rizvi’s death rather than change the nature of their activism to reflect concerns about the pandemic.

Rizvi specialized in organizing mass mob events against blasphemy. He became a national political icon during the controversy surrounding the death sentence issued to Asia Bibi, a Christian mother accused of insulting Muhammad during a dispute with a Muslim coworker, who reportedly accused her of drinking water from a “Muslim-only” cup. It is not uncommon for Muslims in Pakistan to consider Christians dirty and relegate them to dirty jobs like cleaning sewers. Rizvi began organizing mob protests calling for Bibi’s death shortly before her escape to Canada in 2019, after a decade on death row.

Rizvi’s last event was the anti-Macron rally-turned-march on Islamabad, which lasted over 24 hours. While the event began on Sunday afternoon, November 15, protesters continued to flood the streets well into that Monday afternoon, when police finally convinced the TLP members to return home. The event caused significant traffic disruptions and forced some schools to shut down.

Pakistan’s federal health and organizational officials sounded the alarm on November 23 regarding a dramatic surge in the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations nationwide. Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, where TLP organized their mob actions, are among the cities with the highest increase in cases, according to Pakistan’s Express Tribune.

“The second wave of coronavirus is dangerous, the number of patients is increasing and we are still admitting patients. Markets and schools should be closed, gatherings should also be banned and masks should be used when leaving home,” Dr. Semi Jamali, Executive Director of Jinnah Hospital, told the Tribune.

Prime Minister Khan condemned a coalition opposition party, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), this weekend for stating it would not cancel its political rallies. He did not mention the TLP or any Islamist groups, and had declined to chastize them last week due to the allegedly “sensitive” nature of blasphemy.

“The same PDM mbrs [members] who had wanted a strict lockdown and criticised me earlier now playing reckless politics with people’s safety,” Khan wrote on Twitter on Saturday, “they are even defying court orders & holding a jalsa [political rally] when cases are rising dramatically.”

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