Markaz, Sufi shrine in Nizamuddin are two different places

New Delhi, March 31 After the report of 24 people testing coronavirus positive at the markaz Nizamuddin, people are getting confused as Nizamuddin is also associated with famous sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya whose grave attracts lakhs of people during the year, but the markaz and the Dargah are at different places and there are different stories too.

While the markaz started to preach Islam since 1926, the shrine is centuries old.

When first news of people testing positive in the area came, it was refuted immediately by the Dargah. Sajjadanashin Syed Murshid Nizami tweeted, "The news running on right now needs to be corrected. This patient stayed in Nizamuddin Markaz not in Nizamuddin Dargah."

The markaz where the corona positive cases have been found is behind the police station Nizamuddin, while the Dargah is situated three hundred metres inside, where sources in the dargah say that they enforced lockdown as it was announced by the government. The dargah had a major celebration on the day of Basant Panchami in February.

However, adjacent to Dargah there are several low budget lodges to accommodate pilgrims and preachers for the markaz, the area also has grave of famous poet Ghalib.

Congress leader Salman Nizami has blamed the government for the fiasco. He tweeted "People who took shelter at Nizamuddin mosque are those poor helpless Muslims who were not taken home by the Air India Plane. Government is trying to make Hindu-Muslim issue by blaming the poor Muslims who were left with no choice but to gather in groups for food & shelter in lockdown!"

"FIR should be lodged against Delhi CM Kejriwal for his carelessness, be it Nizamudin or other places where people were on roads. More than 25 labourers have died while walking home. There were no arrangements, people had to take shelter in mosque. Request for evacuation was ignored. This CM is incompetent!" tweeted Salman Nizam