New Delhi, Mar 31
The government will soon blacklist the 281 identified foreign nationals who came from 16 countries, including Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, on tourist visas but attended a religious congregation at Nizamuddin here that has now become a major sources of coronavirus spread in the country, officials in the MHA said.
The officials said that apart from these 281 foreigners, 1,549 Indian nationals from 19 states came to Delhi and participated in the Tableegi Jammat congregation in Nizamidin. “We have prepared a state-wise list of these Indians, as maximum 501 came from Tamil Nadu, 216 from Assam, 156 from Uttar Pradesh, 109 from Maharashtra and 107 from Madhya Pradesh.
The MHA officials said as many as 30 of these foreign nationals, who attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz facility in March, had shown symptoms of COVID-19 and as per information available at least three had succumbed to the infection in the last few days.A senior MHA official said, “Those foreign nationals, who came on tourist visas and ended up attending the religious event at Nizamuddin, have violated the visa conditions and thus the government has no option but to put them under the blacklist. Tourist visa holders can't attend a religious function.” He said the blacklist norm is such that once a foreigner is put in it, he or she can't travel to India in future.
Of the total 281 foreigners identified by the police at the Nizamuddin campus in the last two days, 19 are from Nepal, 20 from Malaysia, one from Afghanistan, 33 from Myanmar, one from Algeria, one from Djibouti, 28 from Kyrgystan, 72 from Indonesia, seven from Thailand, 34 from Sri Lanka, 19 from Bangladesh, three from England, one from Singapore, four from Fiji, one from France and one from Kuwait. Most of these foreigners came on a tourist visa, an official said.
MHA said in a statement later that as many as 2,100 foreigners visited India for Tablighi activities since January 1 and all of them first reported at its headquarters in Nizamuddin.
In its statement, the home ministry said while approximately 824 of them, as on March 21, were dispersed in different parts of the country, 216 of them were staying at Nizamuddin Markaz, where several of them tested COVID-19 positive.
It is estimated that from January 1 onwards, approximately 2100 foreigners had visited India for Tabligh activities, the statement said.
Tablighi Jamaat workers, both foreigners as well Indians, indulge in preaching tours or Chilla across the country throughout the year.
Various nationals, particularly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan come for Tabligh activities.
All such foreign nationals normally report their arrival at Tabligh Markaz at Banglewali Mosque in Hazrat Nizamuddin, the statement said. From here, they are detailed for Chilla activities to different parts of the country.
Chilla activities in all states are coordinated by district coordinators in different districts, who, in turn, in some states are supervised by ‘state Amirs'.
“As on March 21, there were about 1,746 people staying in Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz. Of these, 216 were foreigners and 1530 were Indians. Additionally, about 824 foreigners had been, as on March 21, doing Chilla activities in various parts of the country,” it said.
