New Delhi: A special train carrying around 700 Tablighi Jamaat members will leave from Delhi to Tamil Nadu on Saturday (May 16). The train will depart from the Old Delhi Railways Station in the national capital at 2 pm today.
According to reports, all 700 Tablighi Jamaat members were placed at quarantine centres in the national capital and are said to be free of the coronavirus COVID-19 infection. Special buses have been arranged from the quarantine centre in Delhi to the Old Delhi Railway Station. Buses have also been arranged to ferry the Tablighi Jamaat members from Chenani railway station to their respective home towns.
The decision to allow Tablighi Jamaat members to leave Delhi was taken after a special request was placed by the Tamil Nadu government led by Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
On May 16, a PIL, filed in the Delhi High Court seeking immediate release of Tablighi Jamaat members put in quarantine centres for almost five weeks, was withdrawn by the petitioner. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar, which conducted the hearing through video conferencing, was told by the counsel for the petitioner that they wish to withdraw the petition as the Delhi government has already directed for release of Tablighi Jamaat members who do not show any symptoms of COVID-19.
In another development, prominent Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind said as many as 1,640 foreign Tablighi Jamaat members from 47 countries were in India at the time of Nizamuddin Markaz gathering, of whom only 64 tested positive for COVID-19 and two more died of the virus. Jamiat president Maulana Arshad Madani added that out of the total foreign Tablighi Jamaat members, 739 are in Delhi and the rest are in other states.
Earlier, government sources said foreign nationals, who attended the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi would face punitive action if they are found to have participated in the gathering violating visa rules.
