BUKIT MERTAJAM: Penang police have initiated a probe into a viral video footage showing more than 200 Muslims, believed to be foreigners, praying in the open outside Surau Taman Pelangi here in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidiladha.
The surau is one of many in the state allowed to hold Friday prayer as well as Aidiladha prayer.
Initial investigation revealed that more than 200 people had gathered to pray in the open after the surau exceeded its capacity of 100 people.
State police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said further investigation revealed the surau was already swarmed with hundreds even before the prayer started at 8.30am.
He said the management of the surau then ordered them to leave to meet the 100 capacity before closing the gate.
"However, the management of the surau did not disperse the crowd, knowing full well the sensitivity of the Aidiladha prayer. They also did not alert the police to the matter.
"This resulted in the more than 200 congregation, mainly foreigners, to gather spontaneously outside the surau for the Aidiladha prayer, whilst observing physical distancing. They left after prayers about 9am.
"Although the incident happened spontaneously, this did not mean that police will not investigate the matter.
"Police will still investigate if the gathering outside the surau was pre-planned," he told newsmen at the Seberang Prai Tengah district police headquarters here today.
Present was district police chief Assistant Commissioner Shafee Abd Samad.
Taman Pelangi has a population of about 8,000 people, living in 23 flats in the area.
About 70 per cent of the population there are foreigners, who are working in nearby industries.
The video footage which went viral this morning showed the congregation who gathered to pray outside the surau was mainly foreigners.
Mohd Shuhaily said police would identify those featured in the video before taking any action.
"We are fighting the Covid-19 pandemic now and we hope everyone will abide by the SOP set.
"Rest assured, we will find those who were shown on the video footage," he added.
The case is probed under Section 269 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 270 of the same code.
Asked if action would be taken against the surau, he said they had adhered to the SOP.
On whether police would look for the individual who uploaded the video footage, he said their priority was to look for those who flouted the SOP.
Mohd Shuhaily said police would never compromise against anyone who breach the SOP, especially this time of Covid-19 pandemic.
"On behalf of the police, I want to sincerely apologise to the people of Penang for having failed to detect this morning's incident earlier.
"I have also issued a reminder to all management of mosques and suraus statewide to alert the police of such incident in future. They can call us at 04-2221722.
"This morning's incident will serve as a lesson to others in future," he said.
Mohd Shuhaily said he had directed his men to conduct checks at all mosques and surau in the state that were allowed to conduct Aidiladha prayers.
There are 180 mosques and 57 suraus statewide.
"We did carry out monitoring this morning but there was nothing.
"It (the gathering) could have happened after my men moved to the next location," he added.
Meanwhile, Surau Taman Pelangi chairman Fazil Abdul Karim told the New Straits Times that when he arrived for prayers at 8.15am, the surau was already filled with people, even on the outside.
He, however, said there was strict adherence to the SOP inside the surau.
"We are able to control what happened inside the surau but what happened on the outside was beyond our control."
"Due to situation, and with the prayer scheduled to start at 8.30am, I forgot to alert the police. We then started the Aidiladha prayer at 8.30am which ended 30 minutes later and I asked all to leave the place.
"I already tried to speed up the prayer session as I saw that the situation was getting out of hand outside," he said.
Only two Rela personnel were on duty to monitor the situation.
Fazil said the congregation who gathered outside were mainly Bangladeshis and Indonesians who were only there to pray.
"We admit that due to the tense (kelam kabut) situation, and with prayer starting, we did not call the police," he added.