While clerics and governments across the Muslim world will greet Ramadan this week under lockdown, working together to shut mosques and urging worshipers to pray at home, in Pakistan, some of the most prominent imams have rallied their devotees to ignore the anti-pandemic measures.

Ramadan, which begins this week, is the holy month in which Muslims crowd into mosques and fast all day, holding feasts after sundown with family and friends. Those are ripe conditions for the coronavirus to spread, and imams around the world are asking people to stay home.

But in Pakistan, pandemic or no pandemic, hard-line clerics are calling the shots, overriding the government’s nationwide virus lockdown, which began late last month.

Most clerics complied with the shutdown when it was announced. But some of the most influential ones immediately called on worshipers to attend Friday prayers in even greater numbers. Devotees attacked police officers who tried to get in their way.