KUALA LUMPUR: A committee member of the Sri Petaling Tabligh religious gathering today claimed that the actual number of participants who had attended the three-day event was 12,500 people and not 16,000 as reported by the Health Ministry.
Malaysia Tabligh and Dakwah Markaz committee member Abdullah Cheong said the information on the number of participants as reported by the ministry was not accurate.
“This (the actual number of participants) is based on the data gathered by the Syukbah Pendataan Ijtimak Tabligh, which is a segment of the committee that coordinates food distribution and lodgings for the participants.
"The data was calculated based on the size of the gathering and the space within the mosque. For example, the right-wing of the mosque can only accommodate up to 1,700 people.
“Another section specifically for guests from abroad can accommodate around 840 people," he said in a statement.
Abdullah added the attendance of the participants was recorded by counting everyone based on the rows of people during prayer time and it was not just a mere estimation.
“On Feb 29, the official data recorded by Masjid Seri Petaling showed that those whoattended for Maghrib prayers were around 12,500 and this includes those on duty to control traffic, parking attendants, cooking staff as well as guests from abroad.
“While it is the highest attendance during the gathering, it is not a figure we just recently obtained, it is a measure that the committee has done for years,” he said.
Previously, the Health Ministry reported that based on their own investigation, there are about 16,000 participants including 14,500 Malaysians at the tabligh gathering at Seri Petaling Mosque that was held from Feb 28 to March 2.
Abdullah claimed that there were around 1,600 participants from abroad and almost 100 per cent of them had returned to their home countries.
This figure would have led to only 11,000 tabligh participants left in the country out of 12,500 including foreigners from Rohingya, Myanmar, and Bangladesh who are residing in the country.
“We have provided full cooperation to the authorities since reports surfaced that the first case on confirmed Covid-19 in Brunei was linked to our ‘ijtimak’ (assembly).
“We have been asking all of our participants to contact their local health clinics or the (Health Ministry’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre) CPRC hotline,” he said.
Abdullah said that the efforts to identify participants of the event were divided among 28 committee 'markaz' (centres).
“The 28 centres are then split into smaller halaqah (circles) of 1,100 groups nationwide. Each halaqah would have around 15 to 20 mosques and surau under its purview,” he said.
Based on the reports quoting the ministry that it had screened 10,500 participants, Abdullah believed that there were only about 500 local participants yet to be screened for Covid-19.
“We were also told that several participants came forward and offered themselves for screening at their nearest hospital or health district office especially on the first day.
“However, when they did not show any kind of symptoms, they were instead told to head home and self-quarantine for 14 days.
“We are, however, concerned that their details were not recorded before they left home,” he said.
Abdullah added that based on the committee’s records, the number of Rohingya who had participated in event was around 200.