UP govt tracks, quarantines majority of Tablighi attendees

The Yogi Adityanath government has identified and quarantined nearly 95 per cent persons who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi in March.

"We have also been conducting raids in various districts where some of the foreign nationals have been hiding after the lockdown. We are examining their travel documents and those who have violated rules, are being booked under relevant sections," said a senior police official on Tuesday.

In Mathura, the local administration has quarantined 51 persons, including 30 who took part in the Tablighi Jamaat.

Health officials said that the 30 quarantined people hail from Shamli and Yamuna Nagar and had moved to the mosques in Mathura and Farah on March 19.

Mathura District Magistrate Sarvagya Ram Misra, said their samples have been taken and sent to Aligarh's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College for tests. All of them have been put up in quarantine centre for 14 days, he said.

Besides, 21 others, including 14 from Agra and 7 from Shamli, have also been home quarantined for 14 days even though they had not attended Delhi's congregation but were in contact with the others.

Meanwhile, the Agra administration also quarantined 89 people, including 24 who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin. Others were from outside the state and were staying in mosques.

All of them were shifted to an institutional quarantine facility developed at a resort in Sikandra by Tuesday night.

Agra Chief Medical Officer Mukesh Vats said, "On the orders of the district administration, the health department teams, along with police, has identified 89 people staying in different mosques of the city. These people had recently come from outside Uttar Pradesh. Some of them attended the religious congregation in Delhi.

"All these people have been shifted to a quarantine facility. The number of such people can further increase. Doctors have started screening them. We will keep them in a 14-day quarantine. Samples of all those having symptoms of COVID-19 will be sent for tests."

In Aligarh, 18 persons who were staying in a mosque were put in quarantine as a precaution. They were also booked under IPC's section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) for staying in a mosque, which is a public place.

At least 14 Bangladeshis and two Indians were taken into custody by Jaunpur police. They had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi and then reached Jaunpur where they were staying in a rented house in Sarai Khwaja area without informing police.

Inspector Sarai Khwaja, Satya Prakash Singh, said that all these persons were booked under appropriate sections of epidemic disease act, passport act and foreigners act. All of them have been sent to a shelter home where they will be examined by a team of doctors and kept in quarantine for the specified period.