Nizamuddin congregation participants stayed in 16 mosques in Delhi, police writes to city govt

The Delhi Police Special Branch on Tuesday wrote to the city government for taking immediate action with regard to people, including foreign nationals, who stayed in 16 mosques in the national capital after taking part in a religious congregation at Nizamuddin which has turned out to be a COVID-19 hotspot, officials said.

The communique said there were 157 such people -- 94 from Indonesia, 13 from Kyrgyzstan, 9 from Bangladesh, 8 from Malaysia, 7 from Algeria and one each from Tunisia, Belgium and Italy. Remaining are Indian nationals.

It said they were staying in mosques in South East, North East and other districts in the city, police said.

"A team of district administration, police and health department is visiting mosques and evacuating foreign nationals and shifting them to quarantine. They were part of Markaz and to decongest the building they had been shifted to various mosques in the national capital," said a police officer.

No social distancing would be possible at those places. It may cause grave danger to public health and the objective of containing COVID-19, the communique said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said 24 people who attended the religious congregation at Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markaz earlier this month have tested positive for coronavirus, while 1,548 have been evacuated and 441 hospitalised after they showed its symptoms.