On 1st April, the West Midlands Police were called up to a city cemetery after local reports indicated that about 100 mourners - including a Birmingham MP, Tahir Ali had gathered at the Sutton New Hall Cemetery defying the coronavirus lockdown.
According to the latest Covid-19 rules only six mourners are now permitted at any funeral in the city. Hall Green MP Tahir Ali confirmed that he had joined in prayers at at the ceremony and blasted the restrictions limiting funeral numbers. Ali who had attended another funeral in the city on the same day called for a relaxation of the funeral rules to aid the distressed families.
He is calling for more people to be allowed to mourn together in the city, as long as they observe social distancing rules. He said it was otherwise putting large families in the city - many of them Muslim - in a horrendous situation.
Ali is further supported by local councillor Majid Ali who had previously shown anger online about a local pharmacy inflating rates of children’s medicine.
Cemetery staff at Sutton New Hall Cemetery had initially raised the alarm after seeing the size of the gathering amid fears about infection risks.
