“Only about twenty minutes ago all those Tablighi Jamaat members who live in Delhi have been told to pack our bags and be ready to leave within the next few hours,” an excited Imran called and told The Quint.
Two quarantine centres in Delhi, one in Dwarka Sector 16 and another in Narela, have made arrangements for Tablighi Jamaat members, who are based out of Delhi, to go home.
The Quint had first reported on 30 April how Tablighi Jamaat members were not being allowed to go home despite spending over a month in quarantine and testing negative for COVID-19 twice.
Delhi Govt Order on Tablighi Jamaat Members
On 9 May, the Government of Delhi's revenue department sent an order to all deputy commissioners, detailing how the Tablighi Jamaat members are to be sent home.
Referring to the 2,446 COVID-19 suspects in the state, the government said that all those who belong to Delhi and other states must be sent home as per guidelines and be issued passes to go home.
The order clearly stated that 'under no circumstance should the aforesaid persons be allowed to stay in any other place, including any Masjids etc. It should be ensured by the nodal officers appointed by the deputy commissioners that the aforesaid persons reach their place of residence.'
Coming to the 567 foreign nationals related to the Markaz, they are to be placed under the custody of Delhi Police, according to the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
‘Can’t Wait to Go Home’
“I am packing right now and can not wait to go home,” Imran says adding that government authorities had started process of getting Tablighi Jamaat members registered from 8 May onwards.
As of now, two quarantine centres have made arrangements for people who live in Delhi to go home. The first being Dwarka Sector 16 and the second is the Narela centre. This is also only for those who live in Delhi.
“Authorities have said that those who live in Delhi will be dropped home. Those who are from outside of Delhi can either give the details of their vehicles to reach home or can go and live at their relatives’ place in Delhi. Whoever does decide to stay back must not make accusations at the government,” Imran said.
Shamsul Arafin, also at the Dwarka quarantine centre and from Delhi confirmed this, he said, “We are about ten people here. They’ve told us to pack and keep everything ready. A bus is probably coming to take us and drop us to our homes.”
On 6 May, Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain had issued an order which gave permission for the release of 4,000 Tablighi Jamaat members in Delhi. This is for those who had completed the required quarantine periods.
“Around 900 belong to Delhi while rest are from other states. A majority of them hail from Tamil Nadu and Telangana. All others need to be sent back to their home states. For this, Delhi government’s home department has been asked to get in touch with resident commissioners of the states,” government sources had said on 6 May.
Speaking to The Quint, Tablighi Jamaat's media representative said, "This is the first centre from Delhi which is allowing Tablighi Jamaat members to go home. Till now no other centre had done so despite orders being given on 6 May."
Others are still waiting to go home. Siraj from Sultanpuri quarantine centre said that the process of filling the form has also not begun at the centre.
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