Trace contacts of Tablighi Jamaat members on war footing: Centre to states

As fresh cases of COVID-19 linked to Tablighi Jamaat's Delhi gathering surfaced, the Centre on Wednesday asked the states to complete the tracing of people who attended the mid-March meet and their contacts on a "war footing", as it has "increased the risk" of containment efforts of the pandemic.

The direction came during a video conference of Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba with Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police, as authorities completed the evacuation of 2,361 people who were in Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in south Delhi's Nizamuddin, which is linked to at least 11 COVID-19 deaths and over 150 cases of virus infection across the country.

At the meeting, the states were sensitized about the need for "intensive contact tracing" of Tablighi Jamat participants as this has increased the risk of containment efforts of COVID-19. The states were asked to complete the contact tracing process on a war footing, an official statement said.

Gauba also asked states to initiate action for violation of visa conditions against the foreigners and the organizers of the event after officials said foreigners who came to Tablighi Jamaat on tourist visas were indulging in preaching and other religious activities, which is not allowed under the travel document issued to them.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had on Tuesday said foreign nationals visiting India as a part of Tablighi Jamaat team are usually issued tourist visas on which they are not allowed to indulge in missionary work. It had directed state police to examine categories of visas of all these foreign workers and take further action in case of violation of visa conditions.

As on March 21, 824 foreign Tablighi Jamaat workers were in different parts of the country for missionary work. Besides, 216 foreign nationals were staying in the headquarters in Nizamuddin.

Various nationals, particularly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Kyrgyzstan come for Tablighi Jamaat activities and people from at least 16 countries and 19 Indian states had attended the March 13-15 religious gathering here.

Since January 1, around 2,100 foreigners had visited India for Tablighi Jamaat activities of which 1,040 are still in India while the rest left the country before the 21-day lockdown started on March 25.

The MHA said the Bureau of Immigration has been sharing with state authorities, details of all international arrivals from affected countries based on Self Declaration Form filled-in by them since February 1. In addition, since March 6, Bureau of Immigration had also been sharing details of all the international arrivals (both Indians and foreigners) at all the international airports in the country to the concerned state, based on the permanent address mentioned in their passport, in case of Indians, and hotel address, in case of foreigners.