New Delhi, March 3 A shocking video is doing the rounds on social media which shows worshippers in Iran licking and kissing shrines at holy sites in the Iranian cities of Qom and Mashhad amid COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
An Iranian journalist, Masih Alinejed, shared the video and wrote, "While the city of Qom is the epicentre of #CoronaVirus in Iran, authorities refuse to close down religious shrines there. These pro-regime people are licking the shrines & encouraging people to visit them. Iran's authorities are endangering the lives of Iran & the world."
"World Health Organization @WHO needs to intervene urgently. Videos of pro-regime people urging even their own children to lick the #CoronaVirus infested shrines are surfacing. Not only is this child abuse, it's also helping the virus spread in Iran and to other countries," he tweeted in another post.
The shared video shows people licking the doors and a burial mound at the Fatima Masumeh Shrine in Qom, the epicentre of COVID-19 outbreak in Iran.
Also, several videos have been released in the past week of worshippers licking and kissing shrines. As the video went viral, social media was abuzz with reactions.
A user wrote, "Shocking scenes. Compare this to Saudi Authorities who are doing everything within their power to stop the spread of #coronavirus."
Another wrote, "There's something fundamentally wrong with anyone who wants to lick a shrine in the first place."
"Do they all lick the same places that others have licked? World's apart," said one user.
"Aside from the insanity of doing this during an epidemic, what's with the licking? is this normal practice in usual times," a user asked.
The Shia shrines in Iran have remained open despite coronavirus concerns and are touched and kissed by thousands of pilgrims every day.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iran has jumped from two to more than 1,501 and at least 66 people have died till Tuesday morning.
( With inputs from IANS )