Haryana's Home Minister Anil Vij said on Wednesday that 503 people, including 72 foreigners, who attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin area earlier this month have been traced in the state.
He said that health teams are at their job after Haryana police traced the congregation attendees in various districts including Gurgaon and Ambala.
On the purpose of this group entering Haryana, the minister said that after attending the congregation they are assigned duties and sent to different places across India to preach. "They stay in mosques, go to people's homes and hold meetings."
Vij, who also holds the Health Department portfolio, said, "503 of them came to Haryana and those include 72 foreigners. Among those, who are to be quarantined or isolated is being decided by the health teams."
He said in Ambala Cantonment, the seat he represents in the Assembly, samples of four members of this group, who are being treated as symptomatic, have been sent for testing while 40 others in Ambala have been quarantined.
"Most of the 503 people came from Tamil Nadu. Among foreigners, some are from Nepal," Vij said.
"Medical examination of all the 503 Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation attendees traced in the state will be conducted. Those who show symptoms will be admitted to hospitals, kept in isolation wards and their samples tested. All those who could have come into contact with them will be quarantined," the minister said.
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He, however, said that it has not been established yet how many have come in their contact.
About reports that the group could have entered Haryana after the lockdown was imposed, Vij replied, "Then action will be taken according to law."
The Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markaz in Nizamuddin West has emerged as a hotspot of coronavirus, following which a major area has been sealed and an FIR lodged against its cleric for violating government orders.
The Telangana government said on Monday that six people who attended the religious congregation between March 13 and 15 died due to coronavirus. Subsequently, authorities across the country swung into action to trace the contacts of those who went to the gathering, attended by hundreds of people, including from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
The Delhi police registered an FIR against Maulana Saad of the Nizamuddin centre under sections of Epidemic Disease Act and other sections of the Indian Penal Code for violating government orders on management of the markaz in relation to social, political or religious gathering.
The Delhi government had earlier said 24 people, who took part in the congregation earlier this month, have tested positive for coronavirus.
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