It has been reported that Maulana Saad, head of Nizamuddin Markaz and other Muslims living inside the Nizamuddin Dargah did not vacate the virus-infected locality on Delhi police’s request, resulting in Home Minister Amit Shah deploying NSA Ajit Doval.
Citing unnamed top Home Ministry officials, the Hindustan Times report says that NSA Doval reached around 2.00 am on March 28-29 night at the Markaz and convinced Maulana Saad to get the occupants to be tested for the COVID-19 infection and be quarantined.
According to the reports, Maulana Saad, head of Nizamuddin Markaz, had refused to yield to pleas from Delhi Police and security agencies to vacate the Banglewali Masjid. As the controversial imam did not move an inch, NSA Doval had to reach the spot to convince the Muslims to vacate the mosque. Maulana Saad is now absconding and untraceable as per Delhi Police.
Shockingly, Shah and Doval knew about the situation after the security agencies had tracked down the nine test positive Indonesians at Karimnagar, in Telangana, to the March on March 18 itself. The security agencies had sent an alert on the Markaz infection the very next day to all state police and subsidiary offices.
However, no effective action to vacate the Markaz was taken by the Union Home Ministry hinting at the glaring security lapse in the national capital. Now the authorities have initiated a nation-wide hunt to trace all those who had attended the event and others they had come in contact with.
There were 216 foreign nationals in the Markaz in Delhi but there are over 800 more in different parts of the country. Most of them are nationals of Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. On Tuesday, the Home Ministry has blacklisted these 800 Islamic preachers for violating visa rules by visiting India on a tourist visa and attended the Islamic religious conference organised by the “Tablighi Jamaat”. The preachers were found staying at the Banglewali Masjid, the Mosque near the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi, earlier this month.
Since January, the Home Ministry has said, about 2,000 foreigners have attended the Markaz congregation. The initial reports indicated almost all of them violated their visa conditions by entering India on visas for tourists, not missionaries. They will be blacklisted from entering the country again.
Meanwhile, the Delhi police have registered FIR against Tablighi Jamaat preacher Maulana Saad and other members of the outfit under section 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act (1897) for organizing the congregation at the times of severe lockdown amidst the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
