New Delhi: A religious gathering at a mosque in Delhi has been linked to seven coronavirus deaths and 200 people with symptoms linked to COVID-19 are being tested. Early this morning, the Markaz Nizamuddin – the Delhi headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat — was sealed and 850 people moved out in buses are quarantined in different parts of the city.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday ordered a police case against the mosque administration over negligence that has endangered hundreds of lives.
Of 25 new coronavirus cases reported in Delhi on Monday, 18 were from “Markaz Nizamuddin”, as Tablighi Jamaat calls the headquarters.
Ignoring all social distancing rules to avoid the deadly coronavirus, hundreds had been staying in the 100-year-old mosque complex, which has a six-floor dormitory, since a two-day gathering of the Tablighi Jamaat earlier this month. Tablighi Jamaat is an Islamic missionary movement set up in 1926, with members across the world.
Six people from Indonesia who attended the gathering, have died in Telangana and one man died in Srinagar.
Ten more who returned to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have tested positive.
The gathering, which featured sermons, was attended by Tablighi members from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan and Saudi Arabia. Members had also come from Afghanistan, Algeria, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England, Fiji, France and Kuwait.
Many of those who attended then travelled to other parts of the country. The Indonesians, for instance, went to southern states like Telangana.
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