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Inside a quarantine centre, a drive to save lives

At the Sultanpuri facility, members of the Tablighi Jamaat are wholeheartedly donating blood plasma, with a wish and a prayer for faster recovery of COVID-19 patients

At the quarantine centre in Sultanpuri, one of facilities where members of the Tablighi Jamaat are being kept, a handful of men can be seen roaming around with their masks on while others sit in the balconies of their rooms, carefully observing every movement outside.

A community hall on the premises has been demarcated for blood plasma donation and a queue stretches outside, of men willing to contribute in whichever way possible to save lives.

(Top) Members of Tabhlighi Jamaat inside a quarantine centre in Sultanpuri; a man at the quarantine facility.   | Photo Credit: SHIVKUMARPUSHPAKAR

A tall, lean man walks lazily near the hall. When greeted, he identifies himself as Ehtesham Ahmad, a 24-year-old policeman from West Bengal.
“I was the first person to donate plasma. It’s the holy month of Ramzan and what can be a better deed than saving someone else’s life,” he says, looking towards the community hall.

For Mr. Ehtesham, coming to Nizamuddin in March was just “bad timing”.

Recalling his trip, he says he had come to the Nizamuddin police station on an official visit on March 20 and was staying at the police quarters adjacent to the station. “I had gone to a mosque in Nizamuddin to offer namaz on March 23. I hadn’t gone inside the Markaz [Tablighi Jamaat centre] though. I was taken to Rajiv Gandhi Hospital because I had visited the mosque,” he says, adding that he stayed at the hospital for 20 days before being shifted to the Sultanpuri centre.

Mr. Ehtesham says he tested positive in the first test but his next two tests were negative.

To his surprise, a friend whom he had asked for help was also sent to a quarantine centre in Narela. Mr. Ehtesham blames himself for his friend’s ordeal. “I had asked him [the friend] to pick up my belongings from the police quarters. Because of that he was also taken and quarantined. He doesn’t even know why he is there because he has tested negative throughout.”

Mr. Ehtesham says he also sought help from his department in West Bengal to reach home in Kolkata but was informed that he can only come back after the authorities in Delhi relieve him.

He blames the media for the “negative image” of those associated with the Tablighi Jamaat. “The media has hyped it. Cases are increasing even now when the Tabhighi Jamaat members are recovering,” he says.
‘Time to amend things’
A few metres ahead, a man wearing a chequered lungi, a T-shirt and a skullcap, stands in the long queue of likely donors. After ticking off several boxes on the requirement list, he is ready for the tests.

Sharfuddin, 49, works as a technician in government departments in Port Blair. An ardent follower, he says he came to the Nizamuddin centre on February 15 and stayed there till he was evacuated on March 29 and taken to the Lok Nayak Hospital.

“Maulana Saad sahab [Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi] has asked us to donate plasma. People want to harm him by spreading rumours about Tablighi Jamaat,” he says.

“Whatever happened was wrong, it shouldn’t have happened, but this is the time to amend things,” he says.

Mr. Sharfuddin was brought to the Sultanpuri facility on April 19. He too tested positive once and then tested negative twice. His fourth test report is awaited.

Back home in Port Blair, his two sons and wife are waiting for him. He speaks to them on the phone every day but doesn’t know when and how he will be able to meet them.
First visit

Standing a little away from the crowd, Saleemuddin, a 50-year-old resident of Allahabad, looks agitated when asked about his story.

“This was my first visit to the Nizamuddin centre. I am an illiterate person. My elders were coming here and they asked me to join them. I came here as late as March 21,” he says, adding that the centre was shut on March 23 and he got stuck.

On March 29, he was shifted to the Lok Nayak Hospital and then to this facility in Sultanpuri.

“I came to Delhi for the first time, didn’t know something like this would happen to me. I will not come again,” he says, adding that he can’t wait to go back home to his wife and four sons.

A power loom worker, Mr. Saleemuddin says he donated plasma a day earlier. “I was told that donating blood will help cure another person, so I gave.” Asked about plasma therapy, he says he had no knowledge of what was being taken out from his body till a doctor told him that it was plasma and not blood.

On his life inside the quarantine centre, he says he spends his time praying and watching life pass by from the windows and balconies. “People here treat us well. They maintain a distance. There is a person assigned for each building who leaves breakfast, lunch and dinner at our door and attends to our needs. They have given us electric kettles, biscuits and fruits in our twin-sharing accommodations,” says Mr. Saleemuddin.
Stuck for no reason

There are also those who are spending time in quarantine for no reason. Ibrahim, a senior citizen, complains that he never tested positive for the virus but was still moved to the facility and there are many like him. “We don’t know what’s happening with us.”

He says irrespective of the scenario and the presumptions about the Tablighi Jamaat outside, over 750 people from the community queued up to donate plasma at the community hall the evening before. “So many foreigners were willing to donate plasma but they were not allowed. Minimum requirement even for an Indian is to test negative twice, be between 18 and 60 years of age and have no complications in complete blood count report,” he says.

Dr. Ishrat Kafeel, who is supervising the donation of plasma by members of Tablighi Jamaat at three quarantine centres in Delhi, says his interaction with them sometimes leaves him surprised. “I was holding a conference with the donors at the quarantine facility in Narela. I asked them, ‘Plasma therapy is a clinical trial, it’s Ramzan and you’re fasting, yet you are so willingly waiting for your turn. Why does this matter to you?’ A man from the centre, about 70 years old, told me, ‘Because it’s not about how much I give or what I give but how much love I put into giving. Even if the last drop of my blood can save someone’s life, I am more than ready to give it, without question and without hesitation’.”