These villagers unite to report jamaat members, their contacts
FIGHTING CORONA The villagers will also launch an awareness campaign urging residents to remain at home and maintain social distancing while moving out
LUCKNOW: The natives of Soanpipri, a Muslim dominated village in Maharajganj district, have launched a campaign to locate suspected Covid-19 positive villagers in their area.
A meeting of the villagers was held under the chairmanship of gram pradhan, Niyaz Khan after information spread that six people from nearby villages, who attended the religious congregation in Delhi organized by Tablighi Jamaat, have been found positive.
In the meeting, a unanimous resolution was passed that villagers will assist the administration in locating members of Tablighi Jamaat who attended the Delhi congregation as well as the people who came in contact with the attendees.
The people are looking at us with suspicion after raids were conducted by the administration to trace the Jamaatis. We need to act fast to locate the suspects as well as to come out of the suspicion conundrum, Khan said.
The villagers have decided to launch an awareness campaign urging the residents to remain in-door and maintain social distance while moving out in the public areas, he said.
In nearby Sonbarsa village located near the Nepal border, the villagers are maintaining vigil. Both India and Nepal have sealed their borders and security personnel are watching over the activities across the border. Yet the border is porous, the people can sneak with ease using the sandy paths that move through the fields.
We have information that over 50 Tablighi Jamaat members from Nepal have visited Delhi to attend the congregation. Some of them returned while others have taken shelter in the villages and towns, said gram pradhan, Sahdev Singh.
The residents of the villages located in Uttar Pradesh and Nepal are in regular touch with each other, on mobile, collecting information about the movement of Tablighi Jamaat members on the border.
A Nepal based journalist Chetan Pant said the people of Nepal are also concerned after the information was released that a large number of Tablighi Jamaat members that attended Delhi congregation have been found corona positive. We have blown an alert as several Covid-19 positive cases have been reported in the villages in Uttar Pradesh located on the Nepal border, he said.
Acting on a tip-off, the Nepal police rounded up 19 people from a place in Sunsari town located near the border. All the people had attended Delhi congregation, while nine are citizens of Pakistan, the remaining 10 are residents of Agra. All have been sent to the quarantine centre, said a Nepal police officer, Sagar Thapa.
After getting information that members of Tablighi Jamaat have arrived in Bareilly district the office bearers of Dargah Ala Hazrat called upon the members of the Muslim community to follow lockdown rules strictly and to remain confined in their houses.
The office bearers also said, instead of visiting the graves of the family members on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat the people should hold special prayer in their houses.
A leaflet was distributed in the district by Subhan Raza Khan Subhani of Ala Hazrat urging the people who have come from outside to remain quarantined in their houses for 14 days. If they have any symptom of Covid- 19 they should immediately visit the nearest hospital or contact the local administration on the helpline. The people should not boycott the coronavirus positive people or the families but assist them in fighting the disease, he said.
Besides, in distant Azamgarh district, the concern was visible on the faces of the people in Sarai
Mir and Mubarakpur towns after police conducted searches to locate the members of Tablighi Jamaat who have arrived in the district after attending the Delhi congregation.
Four people in the district have been found positive and all are members of Tablighi Jamaat, said Mohammad Suleman, a trader based in Sarai Mir.
The district administration has urged the Jamaatis to inform the administration voluntarily about their whereabouts so that they can be quarantined for 14 days.
The members of Rashtriya Ulema Council have urged the people to take precautionary measures for protection from the epidemic.
Moreover, in Rae Bareli, the two positive cases are the Tablighi Jamaat members, the district administration called upon the people to inform the authorities about the movement or the activities of the Jamaatis.
Acting on a tip-off the police detained two people in Jais town who have returned after attending the Delhi congregation. The samples of both have been sent for a laboratory test and the duo has been quarantined in the ward of the community health centre.
The maximum number of Tablighi Jamaat members which is over three hundred have been traced in the Meerut zone. The people from foreign countries as well as from other states including Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Haryana have arrived in Meerut, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Hapur.
In Agra also, as many as 150 Jamaatis have arrived from Nizamuddin Markaz.
The majority of the hotspots announced by the state government are located in the districts of West UP, said Mohammad Farrukh a school teacher in Hapur.