Instead, the former prime minister said authorities under the previous government had approved the four-day tabligh meeting from Feb 27 to March 1, which attracted more than 10,000 people.

“It is not like the tabligh want to be infected. They too are victims,” he said in a Facebook post.

He said the gathering was legal as it had the necessary approvals from the authorities including the police and Kuala Lumpur City Hall.

He said the approvals were not wrong as there was no restrictions from the Pakatan Harapan-led government then.

In his post, Najib showed an approval letter from the police as well as a chronology of events on the Covid-19 situation.

“What is important now is that all those who attended the tabligh convention give their full cooperation to the authorities and tell who they came into contact with and where they went since the event.”

At press time, the death of a third tabligh member who attended the gathering has pushed the Covid-19 casualties in Malaysia to 21.

As of yesterday, more than 9,026 participants of the tabligh assembly had undergone Covid-19 screening, with over 1,057 found positive with the deadly virus.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST DATA ON THE COVID-19 SITUATION IN MALAYSIA