Coronavirus: MHA blacklists 960 Tablighi Jamaat foreigners

Sources said that the foreigners associated with Tablighi Jamaat came on tourist visas but had been engaging in “missionary and proselytising” activities across the country. “This is a clear violation of visa rules and so their visas have been cancelled. They have also been blacklisted which means they will not get Indian visa henceforth. A visitor to India on a tourist visa can at best attend a religious congregation but the person cannot engage in proselytising activities. For that one would need a missionary visa,” a Home Ministry official said.

Beginning the first week of March, thousands of Tablighi Jamaat activists had gathered at Alami Markaz at Nizamuddin for a religious event that continued for days. More than 2,000 of them were foreigners and after the event, over 800 of them went to various parts of the country and engaged in proselytising activities, the MHA has claimed.

Many of them came from COVID-19-affected countries such as Thailand, China, Malaysia and Indonesia and the infection spread among those staying at the Markaz. As they went across the country and met hundreds of people, the infection spread further, the MHA said. Nizamuddin Markaz has now been notified as a COVID-19 hotspot.

According to the MHA, more than 1,000 Tablighi workers of foreign nationalities were in various parts of India on March 21. Of these, 216 were staying in Nizamuddin Markaz. “Additionally, about 824 foreigners had been, as on March 21, doing Chilla activities in various parts of the country … Details of these 824 foreigners had been shared on March 21 with the State Police for identifying them, getting them medically screened and quarantining them,” an MHA statement had said earlier.

It added that as on March 21, there were about 1,746 people staying in Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz. According to MHA figures as on March 21, among the Tablighi foreigners who fanned out across the country, most (125) went to Tamil Nadu, followed by Uttar Pradesh (132), Haryana (115), Maharashtra (115) and Telangana (82).

According to a March 28 letter of MHA to all states, about 2,000 foreigners of Tabligh association from 70 countries were in different parts of India on tourist visas. Their visas are valid for six months. Most of these foreigners are from Bangladesh (493), Indonesia (472), Malaysia (150) and Thaliland (142).

“Usually, all the foreign nationals visiting India as a part of Tabligh team come on the strength of tourist visa. MHA had already issued guidelines that they should not indulge in missionary work on tourist visa. State Police would be examining categories of visas of all these foreign TJ workers and take further action in case of violation of visa conditions,” an MHA statement said.

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