Tablighi body plea to release Keralites quarantined in UP and other states

New Delhi:  The Kerala Coordinator of Tablighi Jamaat has written to Chief Secretary, Kerala and home secretary of the state requseting them to intervene for the release of Tabligh Jamaat workers quarantined in UP, Delhi,  Kashmir and Punjab.

It also points out that most of them had come for a religious congregation in the Tablighi centre in Nizmuddin,  but had been detained without any reason for the past 43 days.

Although arrangements had been made for their transport by train and private vehicles to Kerala,   the state governments had blocked their exit and kept them in quarantine despite the fact that the quarantine period of all the people detained there were over and that their release was overdue. They had even obtained reserved train tickets and the pass to enter the state,  but could not move out because of the restriction imposed.

In spite of their testing negative for COVID, and even after the expiry of the isolation period,  the quarantine centre has been converted into a virtual detention centre.

The complaint also requests the state's permission for Tablighi workers stranded in Punjab to come back to home state of Kerala.   The stranded workers are apprehensive that the detained workers would be subjected to cumbersome legal procedures in the name of the gathering in the Tablighi markaz.

The 37 Tablighi workers were among those who were rounded up by the UP government after a country-wide swoop on Tabligh locations following the evacuation of the Tablighi headquarters in Nizamuddin.   The co-ordinator also points out in the letter that  the other state governments concerned including Uttar Pradesh were adopting an approach quite opposite the fair and reasonable stance of Kerala.

The letter seeks Kerala's effective intervention to bring back the natives of Kerala stranded in those states.