11 Muslim clerics among 26 Nepalese quarantined after returning from India stealthily

At least 26 Nepalese Muslims, including 11 religious leaders, who returned home by secretly crossing the border after attending various religious congregations in India for over a month, have been detained and quarantined in Nepal, taking the total number of such cases to 44.

The religious leaders from southern Nepal's Saptari district, who spent over a month participating in various religious congregations across India, secretly crossed the Nepal-India border and arrived at Bishrampur Rural Municipality. Police detained them on Thursday and sent them to a quarantine facility at a school building in Birgunj.

After we learnt that a few Muslim religious leaders had arrived at the mosque in Bishrampur, we reached there with rural municipality Chairperson Amirilal Pal, Vice-chairperson Sumitradevi Sah and the local people, got their health checked up and then sent them to quarantine, DSP Gautam Mishra of Bara was quoted as saying by the Himalayan Times.

Similarly, 15 Nepali Muslims, who entered Nepal from India during the lockdown, have also been quarantined in Parsa district of southern Nepal.

Earlier, 18 Nepali Muslims, who returned from India after participating in a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin area in New Delhi, were identified and kept in a quarantine facility in Saptari district.

Famed for the shrine of the 14h century Sufi mystic Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya, the Nizamuddin area of New Delhi has emerged as an epicentre for spread of the coronavirus in different parts of India after thousands of people took part in a Tablighi Jamaat congregation from March 1-15.

Indian authorities have launched a nationwide search for participants of the huge religious gathering amid fears that thousands present there could have carried the infection to the length and breadth of the country.

Various nationals, particularly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan come for Tabligh activities in Delhi.

Meanwhile, 13 Indonesian Muslims, who were hiding in a Mosque in Nepal's Godavari area, 18 km east of Kathmandu, have been taken to a nearby resort for quarantine after the local people raised objections.