West Bengal govt starts process of repatriating 19 Tabligh Jamaat men
The West Bengal government, along with the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, has begun the process of repatriating 19 Tabligh Jamaat members of the neighbouring country, who have been stuck in the state since the Covid-19 outbreak in March.
The move came after all of the 19 Tabligh Jamaat members recently tested negative for the infection, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
According to sources in the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, these Tabligh Jamaat members are now lodged at a house near the India-Bangladesh border.
More than 250 members of Tabligh-Jamaat from Bangladesh had gone to India to attend the congregation at Nizamuddin in New Delhi in March.
"Nineteen of them were quarantined in Kolkata on their return from the Markaz (headquarters) of the Tabligh Jamaat and were subjected to official procedures. They were then moved to a house near the border," the sources said.
"The Tabligh Jamaat members recently tested negative for the virus. So, the process has started for their return," a senior official of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission said. A senior West Bengal government official also confirmed the development.
"We are working out the modalities to send these people back to Bangladesh. Talks are on with authorities concerned, including the Indian government," the senior government official said.
The Tabligh Jamaat's Markaz (headquarters) in Delhi's Nizamuddin West had emerged as a coronavirus hotspot in April, as several people who attended the religious congregation there in the second week of March had tested positive for Covid-19.
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