960 foreigners linked to TablighiJamaat blacklisted

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of India on Thursday blacklisted 960 foreigners and cancelled their tourist visas after finding they were involved in TablighiJamaat activities violating their visa conditions.

"The home ministry has blacklisted 960 foreigners and their Indian visas have also been cancelled for their involvement in TablighiJamaat activities while coming on tourist visas," the home minister's office tweeted in Hindi.

The MHA also directed DGPs of all concerned states/UTs and Delhi's Commissioner of Police to take the necessary legal action against all such violators on priority, under relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Over 1,300 foreign TablighiJamaat activists, including those from the US, France and Italy, who took part at a congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, have been identified in different parts of the country and most of them have been put in quarantine, officials said on Thursday.

The TablighiJamaat'sMarkaz in Nizamuddin West has emerged as a hotspot of coronavirus, following which a major area has been sealed and an FIR lodged against its cleric for violating government orders.

Different government agencies have also found around 9,000 Indian TablighiJamaat members and their contacts, spread over in about 20 states and Union Territories, and all of them are in the process of being put in quarantine centres.

Source: Agencies

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