14 Muslim clerics who attended the Tablighi Jamaat’s event held in Nizamuddin, Delhi, were arrested today from a Maulana’s residence in Meerut. These Jamaatis had come from Nepal, Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra and were hiding at a Maulana’s place in Meerut following the police crackdown on Tablighi Jamaat which has emerged as the latest hotspot of coronavirus in the country.

Following Tablighi Jamaat’s congregation at Markus in Nizamuddin, various state governments are put on high alert for identifying the attendees who are suspected of carrying COVID-19. The police officials have been instructed to search for these Jamaatis in mosques. On these lines, Meerut police got an intelligence input about the presence of some Jamaatis in the town. However, when they raided a mosque in Kashi village of Meerut, they did not find any Jamaati sheltered there. The police then searched the house of mosque’s Maulana, where they found the 14 Jamaatis who had attended the congregation in Nizamuddin.

All the 14 Jamaatis hiding in the Maulana’s house are being quarantined for 14 days at the same place. The police are also preparing to file a complaint against the Maulana for providing shelter to the Jamaatis. The law enforcement agencies believe that if these 14 clerics are found positive for COVID-19, then the entire Kashi village will have to be quarantined.

According to sources, 57 people from 19 districts of Uttar Pradesh have participated in this event organised by Tablighi Jamaat. The Yogi government has ordered the officials to tenaciously search for everyone Muslim cleric present in the state who may have attended the congregation and mandatorily get them medically examined after 10 of those who attended the function died of COVID-19. Since then, police and local intelligence units are raiding places in search of suspects who have attended the event and are currently on the run to evade arrest and quarantine.

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The deaths of Muslim clerics who had attended the Jamaat event in Nizamuddin stirred a furore in the country already battling the scourge of coronavirus. At least 1500 people from different parts of the country and abroad, attended the gathering. As feared, 300 of those who attended the function were later hospitalised for exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. Many of those who participated in the event have returned back to their places. The authorities are now scrambling to identify all the participants fearing that they all might be acting as potential vectors of the pathogen causing COVID-19.