UP officials race to identify 157 at Jamaat gathering

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh put all districts on high alert and launched a drive to identify 157 people confirmed to have attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi earlier this month.

“We are not releasing the figures but most of people from UP who visited the religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin are still in Delhi. Only few of them had returned to UP and they are being examined and their entire track record is being maintained,” additional chief secretary, home, Awanish Awasthi, said over phone.

A senior state police official said on condition of anonymity that the list of 157 people had at least 28 people from Muzaffarnagar, 18 from Lucknow, 15 from Barabanki, 12 from Bijnor and 11 from Prayagraj. Also, the list contained eight people each from Varanasi and Meerut, seven from Saharanpur and six each from Ghaziabad and Sitapur, four from Baghpat, three each from Agra, Shamli and Pratapgarh, two each from Mathura, Hapur and Gonda and one each from Bahraich, Bhadohi and Balrampur.

The officer said the district police chiefs were directed to immediately get medical examination of these people done and admit the Covid-19 infected to isolated wards. He said efforts were on to trace people who had come in contact with these 157 people.

Abrar Ahmad, a Lucknow resident who attended the Delhi event, said, “I was contacted by the Delhi officials on Monday. They asked my address besides inquiring about my health and if I had any flu-like symptoms.”

Later in the day, state minister Mohsin Raza urged clerics and preachers who had participated in the Jamaat to identify themselves and inform the district administration about their identity.