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Foreigners who were at Jamaat to be blacklisted

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 31

The government has set in motion the process to blacklist the foreign nationals who came from 16 countries, including Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, on tourist visas but participated in Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), a religious congregation, at Nizamuddin, which now appears to have become a major hotspot for Covid spread in the Capital.

Some will be out to vilify Muslims: Omar

Now the #TablighiJamat will become a convenient excuse for some to vilify Muslims everywhere as if we created & spread #COVID around the world… Omar Abdullah, NC

Cleric booked for gathering

The Delhi Police on Tuesday booked the maulana (cleric), who led a huge religious gathering at Nizamuddin earlier this month, for violating the government ban on public gatherings and maintaining social distance to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, an official said. The case would be investigated by the crime branch, said the police.

Indicating that such foreigners, who have violated visa norms, could be blacklisted for their future travel to India, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a statement said: “Usually, all foreign nationals visiting India as part of the Tablighi team come on tourist visas. The MHA had already issued guidelines that they should not indulge in missionary work on tourist visa. The state police will be examining the categories of visas of all these foreign TJ workers and take action in case of violation of visa conditions.”

According to the figures provided by the MHA, 216 foreigners were staying at the Tablighi’s headquarters at Hazrat Nizamuddin and another 824 had been (as on March 21) doing Tablighi activities in other parts of the country.

An MHA official said, “The foreign nationals who come on tourist visas and end up attending religious events violate the visa conditions and the government will have no option but to blacklist them.”