DERA GHAZI KHAN: Among the many pilgrims quarantined in Dera Ghazi Khan is a group of 26, including 18 women, seven men and a minor, who arrived here from Mashhad city of Iran for after coronavirus broke out in the Iranian city of Qum.

Zawar Mureed Hussain, a resident of Bhutta Colony in Dera Ghazi Khan heading this 26-member delegation, shared his ordeal on the phone from the quarantine camp established at the Ghazi University here. He said that after the breakout of the virus in Qum, the Iranian government helped them return to Pakistan.

“We lived in our own tents in Iran. The Iranian authorities conducted four different tests at the border and issued health certificates to us before we left the country.”

He said that Iranian authorities did not quarantine them and sent them to the border for crossing into Pakistan, adding that they undertook a smooth 14-hour journey from Mashhad to the Taftan border under extreme fear.

Talking to Dawn, Hussain said he was in high spirits and that he and his group members were not suffering from any illness or fever.

About the condition of the quarantine camp established at the Taftan border, he said the arrangements were very poor, which showed a sorry state of affairs. Pilgrims arriving from the virus-hit Qum and other Iranian cities had been kept together without any distinction.

However, he claimed, he and his delegation spent the 14 days in their own camps with four members in each camp, slightly away from the camps established by the government.

After spending two weeks at Taftan, the group reached the quarantine centre established at the agriculture campus of Ghazi University here. He said he had requested the authorities concerned to allow them to live separately in their own camps, but the permission was not granted. Therefore, they were forced to stay with other delegations. He added that men and women were kept in separate halls, each of which housed 15 to 20 pilgrims.

Hussain further said that samples of his group were collected on Thursday and the results were awaited.

He expressed satisfaction over the provision of meals thrice a day and other basic necessities, including milk for minors. However, he said, they had not been provided any masks by the authorities, so they were using their own. He claimed that the authorities told them that masks would be given to sick pilgrims only.

However, he lauded and prayed for the medical team that was looking after the pilgrims.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2020