Mumbai Police trace Tablighi Jamaat attendees - 10 key points

Police guide the attendees at the congregation in Nizamuddin area of New Delhi. Photo: AFP

On Wednesday, India reported around 385 positive cases of Covid-19, by far the highest spike recorded in a single day. An annual convention of the Tablighi Jamaat, which was held at Nizamuddin Markaaz in Delhi in mid-March, has added to the recent spike in positive cases in the country. The congregation was attended by followers from abroad and India.

Meanwhile, the state governments continued their efforts to trace the people who attended the event in Delhi and later moved to different parts of the country. The Mumbai Police had identified 40 people till Wednesday out of the 150 members of the Tablighi Jamaat who returned to the city from the Markaz Nizamuddin congregation and sent them into self-quarantine. Some of these came forward with the help of community leaders and self-quarantined themselves. A massive manhunt is on to identify all the members who attended the event in Delhi.

Here are 10 important developments of how the Mumbai Police has stepped up efforts to trace the attendees of the congregation in Delhi

• Mumbai Police traces over 40 members on Wednesday who attended the meet and sends them to self-quarantine
• Some of these came forward with the help of community leaders and self quarantined themselves
• The attendees are suspected to have come in contact with COVID-19 patients at the Markaz.
• Mumbai Police said over 150 people who attended the event returned to Mumbai
• They returned to the city after attending the congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin in the middle of March, said the police
• 45 of the attendees are foreign nationals from different countries
• Hundreds of Tablighi Jamaat members have also been traced in other parts of Maharashtra.
• The police remained tight-lipped about the exact number of attendees in Mumbai
• Police teams have been deployed at several locations across Mumbai, especially at places which have a large presence of Tablighi Jamaat Members.
• The Jamaat's Mumbai headquarters is at Mohammed Ali Road, known as Chunabhatti Markaz Masjid, which decided the movement of Tablighi Jamaat after they arrived from Nizamuddin.

Around 10 people in Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) who had attended the event at Nizamuddin, New Delhi have reportedly died after contracting the virus. More than 300 have been quarantined while several hundred are being traced by authorities to contain the spread of the infection. Over 128 positive cases with links to the event have been identified.

Also read: Tablighi Jamaat Meet Fall-Out: 40 City Preachers Isolated, Search On For 110 More