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Malaysian Nationals, Who Attended Tablighi Jamaat Congregation, Caught at Delhi Airport
The eight of them were trying to board a special Malindo Air relief flight for their home country.
New Delhi: Immigration officials at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Sunday apprehended eight Malaysian nationals, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the capital last month, as they tried to board a special Malindo Air relief flight for their home country.
They will now be handed over to the Delhi Police and the Health department for further investigation.
8 Tablighi Jamaat members from Malaysia intercepted by Delhi’s IGI immigration department today when they tried to board Malindo Air relief flight for Malaysia. They will be handed over to the authorities (Police): Immigration Sources
— ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2020
According to reports, they were hiding at different places in the national capital.
Notably, around 8,000-9,000 persons, including foreigners, had attended the congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz (mosque) from March 13-15. They then dispersed to different parts of the country, thus transmitting the infection to thousands of people they came in contact with.
Of the 3,374 positive cases of COVID-19 reported in the country thus far, at least 1,023 are linked to the Jamaat congregation. Over 2,000 people were evacuated from the mosque by the Delhi Police and health officials in an ‘operation’ that lasted for five days, between March 28-April 1.
An FIR has been registered against Maulana Saad, the cleric who addressed the gathering, and five others. In an audio tape, the cleric was heard exhorting Muslims to defy the central government’s lockdown orders. However, in another audio that emerged days later, he called on Muslims to adhere to the government’s directives.
The cleric is currently on the run and responded to a Delhi Police notice stating that he was in self quarantine and would come out of it on April 15, a day after the scheduled last day of the three-week nationwide lockdown.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has blacklisted the 960 foreign nationals who attended the event and cancelled their Indian visas. Action against them has also been ordered under the Disaster Management Act.