Jaipur: The Firozabad police have said a news report published by Zee News on April 6, 2020, which alleged that a medical team in Uttar Pradesh that was escorting Tablighi Jamaat members who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus was pelted with stones, is falso.
Warning Zee News to remove its tweet based on the report, the Firozabad police tweeted, “You are spreading false and misleading news when neither a medical team nor any ambulance has been pelted with stones in Firozabad district. Delete your tweet immediately.”
आपके द्वारा असत्य एवं भ्रामक खबर फैलायी जा रही है जबकि जनपद फिरोजाबाद में न तो किसी मैडीकल टीम एवं न ही एम्बूलेंस गाडी पर किसी तरह का पथराव नहीं किया गया है । आप अपने द्वारा किये गये ट्विट को तत्काल डिलीट करें ।
— Firozabad Police (@firozabadpolice) April 6, 2020
Zee News has since deleted the tweet and edited its report. However, the headline of its Facebook post still states that COVID-19 positive Tablighi Jamaat members were pelted with stones. The Facebook post has about 7,200 likes and 1,400 shares.
The edited report claims that four of the seven Tablighi Jamaat members have tested positive for COVID-19 in Firozabad.
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“All these Jamaatis are from Bihar, and they were hiding in the Salman Farsi Mosque of Durgesh Nagar, which comes under the Rasulpur area of Firozabad. Apart from these, the tests were conducted on 11 Jamaatis from Gujarat who were living in the mosque in the Ramgarh area. All these have escaped the grip of the coronavirus. Their tests have come negative,” says the report.
On Tuesday, there were 227 positive cases of COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh. So far, two patients have died and 19 have recovered.
In Karnataka as well, Belagavi Deputy Commissioner S.B. Bommanahalli denied BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje’s claim that the Tablighi Jamaat members, who were quarantined in the district, were misbehaving and spitting on the healthcare workers in the hospital.