KARACHI, APR 14 – Influential clerics announced on Tuesday that they were opening mosques and lockdown restrictions would no longer apply to them.

The announcement came minutes after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government extended the countrywide lockdown by two weeks.

Friday prayers would be offered in mosques, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, the chairman of Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, announced at a press conference in Karachi.

We want to give the government a message that mosques should not be closed, Mufti Muneeb told reporters. He was flanked by other influential clerics, including Mufti Taqi Usmani.

He criticized the police for using force against prayers leaders in the country. “The prayer leader’s job is to lead prayers, not to stop them,” Mufti Muneeb added.

Police have registered cases against several prayer leaders in the country for violating the lockdown. Mufti Usmani demanded the government release prayer leaders and withdraw cases against them.

He, however, said that the people should take precautionary measures to protect themselves from coronavirus. Prayer leaders should stop delivering Urdu speeches and limit the time of prayers, Mufti Usmani urged.

“Mosques were open and lockdown wasn’t applied to them,” Council of Islamic Ideology Chairman Qibla Ayaz said. “The government and the clerics had decided to limit the prayers.”

Ayaz said the clerics should have consulted with the government prior to their announcement.

The government prohibited mass prayers in the last week of March after a spike in coronavirus cases across the country. The virus has so far claimed 100 lives and the number of known cases has reached 5,812 in the country.

The law enforcement agencies, however, had to face resistance from religious circles while implementing the government’s orders.

In Karachi alone, three police officials, including a female station house officer, were injured in the past two weeks after they tried to stop people from offering prayers in congregation.