Lucknow: As many as 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Agra, Bareilly and Meerut, have been put on alert after a cluster of Covid-19 cases was traced back to a Tablighi Jamaat religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz mosque earlier this month.
The state administration took the step after getting information from the Union ministries of home affairs and health that over a hundred people from Uttar Pradesh had attended the gathering and then returned to their homes.
Top sources in the UP Police said the administration is working with intelligence agencies to track foreign nationals who are still residing in the state.
The Lucknow administration, including the district magistrate and the police commissioner, inspected the Markazi Masjid located in the city’s Kaiserbagh-Aminabad area Tuesday, from where the police took six people who had come from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan for Covid-19 testing.
The administration also held the foreign nationals’ passports and instructed the masjid authorities to isolate them for the time being.
A source in the Lucknow administration told ThePrint: “There are at least 30 foreign nationals residing in the state capital for the time being, out of which 17 are Bangladeshi nationals whereas 13 are from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. They are possibly in the Madiyaon and Kakori areas of Lucknow.”
Also read: What is Tablighi Jamaat? Organiser of Delhi event behind spike in India’s Covid-19 count
‘Come out and declare, or face legal action’
Sources in the state administration said at least 150 people from Uttar Pradesh had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi on 13-15 March.
A police source alleged that nearly 100 foreign nationals are still residing in the state undetected — by hiding their contact and accommodation details.
The source said of the future course of action: “District authorities will appeal to all the participants of the Nizamuddin event and foreign nationals to come out to get checked and declare their travel and contact history in the next few days.”
He added that once the deadline set by the administration gets over, “strict legal measures will be taken” against those who don’t come out and declare, as well as those hosting them.
Also read: Tablighi Jamaat blames ‘govt planning’ as BJP, AAP attack it for spike in Covid-19 cases
And what you were waiting for…..whatever government will ask to do you will do the reverse. After seeing the contribution in the no. of corona patients of one community, you should be shameful for the above comments. You are or were, never the victims. You hate this country more then this pandemic.
Yogi & bjp were waiting for this moment to turn corona virus into hindu-muslim issue and harass muslims…