Punjab gives 24-hour deadline to untraced Tablighi Jamaatis to come out of hiding or face criminal prosecution
Amid coronavirus outbreak, the Punjab Health Department on Wednesday gave a 24-hour deadline to all the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) participants of the Delhi Nizamuddin Markaz event, who were hiding out in the state, to report to the nearest police station, or else face criminal prosecution.
A spokesperson of the department said that all those who had attended the relegious congregation event at Nizamuddin Markaz and were currently in Punjab should report and appear for coronavirus screening within the next 24 hours.
The police had so far traced 445 participants, with 22 yet to be tracked, out of the 467 Tabligh Jamaat workers who had reportedly come to Punjab from Nizamuddin in Delhi. The samples had been collected and tested for 350 of those traced, and of these, 12 had been found positive and 111 negative. The results for the remaining 227 were awaited, the spokesperson said.
The remaining TJ participants have been asked to come out for testing and join hands with the Punjab Government to eliminate the pandemic from the country. The spokesperson cited reports that the Markaz of TJ had emerged as a hotspot of coronavirus positive patients, with subsequent confirmation of many positive cases among TJ workers.
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Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has already issued an advisory on March 28 and, in its continuation, reiterated its directions to all the Chief Secretaries/Advisors to Administrators of all States/UTs and DGPs in this regard on April 4.
-PTC News
