More than 1,300 Tablighi Jamaat workers have been traced by the Haryana Police in 15 districts of the State over the past 48 hours. Eight of them have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.
Haryana Director General of Police Manoj Yadava on Friday said that 1,305 workers of the religious body have been traced after the police were alerted by Central agencies about the situation.
He said that about 500 of them admitted to having visited the Banglewali Masjid located in the Nizamuddin area of Delhi. Eight persons, three each from Palwal and Nuh and two from Ambala, have tested positive for the virus so far.
The DGP further said that 106 Tabligh workers were foreign nationals, tracked down in Faridabad, Ambala, Panipat, Palwal and Nuh. They mostly belonged to Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. “All of them have been placed under quarantine and their passports taken into possession. Five FIRs have been registered under the IPC and Foreigner’s Act,” said Mr. Yadava.
Samples taken
Besides, 933 Tabligh workers from Maharashra, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Bihar, who were in Haryana for Tabligh work, have also been tracked and placed in quarantine centres or in the mosques. Their samples have been taken.
The Haryana Police also tracked 266 Tabligh workers belonging to Haryana who had visited different States and had returned over the past ten days to their villages. They have also been placed under quarantine. Most of them belong to Gurugram, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Nuh, Sonipat, Jind and Palwal.
‘Many traced in Nuh’
Around half of the Tabligh workers tracked throughout Haryana were found in the district Nuh, said Mr. Yadava. “In fact, 636 Tabligh Jamaat workers, including 57 foreigners and 528 from other States, have been tracked to Nuh,” he said.
Also, 948 FIRs have been registered and 1,374 people arrested for violation of the lockdown in the State since March 25.
