10 foreigners, who attended Nizamuddin congregation, tracked down in Bihar

At least 10 foreign nationals, who were reported to have taken part in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi's Nizamuddin last month, have been tracked down in Bihar and quarantined in two districts, the state police headquarters said on Friday.

According to a top official, the Centre had given the state "the names of 57 foreign nationals suspected to have been holed up in Bihar after taking part in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation".

"We have been able to identify 35 of them and 10 have been traced. Nine are quarantined in Araria district while one is in Samastipur. The remaining 25 are in other states. Efforts are on to identify the remaining 22," he told PTI.

The official also said the Centre had shared the details of "86 others said to be hailing from Bihar".

"Of them, 53 have been identified, but only one person is in Bihar and in quarantine in Ramnagar. The remaining 52 are outside the state," he said.

In addition, seven others have been identified as residents of Katihar district. They had travelled to Mauritius and during their return journey via Mumbai, got stuck in Uttar Pradesh because of the lockdown, the official added.

"We were also told about two persons from West Bengal who are believed to be in Bihar. One of them is in quarantine in a Darbhanga hospital. The other is in Deoghar in adjoining Jharkhand," he said.

The official also disclosed that data was collated of "both Muslims and Hindus", whose mobile phone locations suggested that they were at Nizamuddin or its vicinity in the last fortnight.

"We were provided with the details of 394 such people. Of them, only 345 turned out to be Biharis. Some of them are also non-Muslims. As many as 102 of them have been traced to Araria, while 39 have been traced to Madhubani district," he said.

Care is being taken to ensure that these people are properly quarantined and their samples will be sent for testing, if needed, the official added.