After New Delhi’s Nizamuddin emerged as the latest hotspot after dozens of country-wide COVID-19 positive cases were traced back to the Tablighi Jamaat, the authorities have started a ‘manhunt’ to trace all the attendees who had participated so that they could be quarantined and their contact tracing could be established. Many of the foreign nationals who had attended the event were found ‘hiding’ in mosques at various parts of the country.
The Tablighi Jamat conference was held in March and was attended by over 2,000 delegates, including Islamic preachers from foreign countries. The police swung into action to identify such people who attended the conference and either returned to their native towns or visited other parts of the country after there were reports of the death of nine people – six in Telangana and one each in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir after attending the Hazrat Nizamuddin event.
As per information, as many as 157 people from 19 districts of the state had attended the event at Nizamuddin between March 13 and 15 and later came in contact with foreign delegates in a conference.
Seven Indonesian nationals and two Indians were traced by Allahabad Police. The Indonesian nationals were found at the Abdullah mosque in Prayagraj. Along with them Indonesian nationals, 28 others who had come in contact with them have also been quarantined, ANI reported.
Earlier in the day, Lucknow Police Commissioner Sujit Pandey had said that 18 residents of Lucknow, who had participated in Nizamuddin Markaz event in Delhi, have not returned back to the city. Addition to that, 24 foreigners who came to Lucknow after participating in the event have been admitted at Balrampur Hospital, he added.
Similarly, ten people who had arrived in Poonch district, Jammu and Kashmir after attending Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin have been identified by District Administration. They all have been kept under quarantine. Shockingly, all the 43 patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 in Andhra Pradesh had contracted the Chinese virus at the event at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz.
In a similar raid, eight Indonesian Muslims were found by the UP police from Jamunwali mosque in Bijnor. They too had visited the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Similarly, 10 Muslims of foreign nationality were found in a mosque in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.
A few days back, eleven foreign Islamic clerics (Maulvis) were nabbed from the Rargaon Mosque in the Tamar area of Ranchi amidst the threat of Chinese coronavirus. Three Maulvis from China, three from Kazakhstan and four others from Kyrgyzstan were hiding in the mosque.
Before that, 12 foreign nationals were found hiding in a mosque in Patna, Bihar. The Muslim belonging to foreign countries had hidden in the Mosque with the help of a few local Muslims. These people were reportedly hiding, fearing medical examination and quarantine amidst the coronavirus outbreak. The incident had created a scare across the country.
Meanwhile, the Delhi government and police have evacuated 2,361 persons from the Nizamuddin Markaz that is believed to have been the epicentre of COVID-19 infections in the country. Several cases of COVID-19 in Delhi as well as in other states have been traced to a congregation held there last month. Many state governments are trying to trace the people who returned after attending the event.
