Over 50 participants of Tablighi event traced, quarantined in Jammu region

JAMMU: With the Centre asking the states and Union Territories across the country to launch on a "war footing" the contact tracing of all participants of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, which has emerged as the coronavirus hotspot, the authorities in Jammu region have traced 51 people and put them into quarantine, while searches for many other are intensified.
While an FIR was already registered in Jammu against the people who had visited the gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi in mid-March and returned to the union territory hiding their travel history, another FIR was lodged in Samba while the Kathua administration has also recommended FIR against seven such persons.
The official sources informed that receiving a communiqué that around 825 persons from the UT had attended the religious gathering in Delhi, the searches and identification for them has been taken on war footing.
In Jammu, ten people, including nine from Hyderabad, were identified on Wednesday and sent to a health centre in Bhatindi on the outskirts of city.
The Kathua administration has recommended FIR against seven persons who had attended religious gathering in Delhi and were hiding their travel history, while putting them into quarantine.
As many as 10 people have been sent to quarantine in Udhampur where authorities also declared eight villages as red zones.
The villages include Kotli Paie, Chopra Shop, Rehambal, Megiyot, Rakh Sansu, More Duggar, Padam and Jib, District Magistrate of Udhampur, Piyush Singla said.
Singla said nearly 100 health professionals have been sent to the area to trace those who may have come in contact with the ten people so that necessary action can be taken.
“In Samba, two persons were identified and sent to qurantine", said SSP Samba Shakti Pathak.
Sources said that an FIR has been lodged against them.
SSP Ramban Haseeb Ur Rahman said that six persons who had attended religious gathering in Delhi have been identified in the district and have been quarantined.
In Doda, four persons who have contacts with Zamaat have been sent to quarantine while the number stands at three in Rajouri.
Identification of others are in progress in Kishtwar, Reasi and Poonch districts which had reported no such person being traced till the time of filing this report.
Director General of Police, J&K, Dilbag Singh said that most people in Jammu and Kashmir who attended the Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation held at Nizamuddin in Delhi have been traced and will be sent to quarantine.
"We have traced almost all those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event held in Delhi. They will be sent to quarantine by health authorities," Singh told reporters during a visit to Kathua to review the arrangements at the Ladakhpur inter-state border check post.
He, however, did not disclose the number of such people who have been identified in the Union Territory.
"They had come from there (Nizamuddin, Delhi), were in their homes here and did not share with authorities and did not inform us. The entire chain is being traced. Police and other personnel are working round the clock to trace the contacts of those who had attended the Tablighi event and come to the UT," he added.
In Kashmir Valley, the administration has been taking strict action against such people who are hiding their travel history.
"We are taking the matter very seriously and have appealed to all those who attended the Nizamuddin congregation to come up for screening," Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, P.K Pole told The News Now.
Official sources said that while many of the positive cases in Valley have either visited Delhi or came in contact with those who attended the gathering, as many as 87 people from Kashmir have been put in quarantine in Delhi itself.
Notably, the first COVID-19 victim of J&K was among the participants of the religious gathering at Nizamuddin and had returned to Kashmir on March 16.
The 65-year old leader of J&K's Tabligi group is reported to have stayed in Nicobar islands for nearly a month with his wife in December 2019.
After he returned to his home in Hyderpora locality of Srinagar city, he travelled to Delhi on March 7. He stayed at Nizamuddin mosque in Delhi till the evening of March 9.
He then went to Deoband along with six fellow Tabligis and stayed in the seminary till March 11. In the evening he took a train and reached Jammu.
On March 12 he travelled to Bari Brahmana area of Samba district where he attended a gathering of Tabligis where he was elected the Amir (chief) of the group's J&K wing for a period of three months. He remained there till March 16 and the same day he travelled in a flight to Srinagar.
His co-passenger in this flight was Kashmir's first COVID-19 positive patient.
During the next three days he presided at a Tabligi congregation in Sopore town attended by around 300 people. At this gathering, he is reported to have freely mingled with the people, shaking hands, hugging, eating food with them etc.
The family of the Tabligi leader originally hails from Sopore town from where they migrated to Srinagar. He returned home and on March 18 when he started showing symptoms of coronavirus infection. He was taken to a nearby hospital on March 21 where doctors prescribed some antibiotics and sent him home.
On March 22 he developed symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and was admitted to Srinagar's chest diseases hospital where he tested positive and doctors put him on the life support system. He died on March 25.
He headed one group of Kashmiri Tabligis whose headquarters is in Bemina area of Srinagar.
Doctors fear the deceased Tabligi could have passed on the virus to dozens who in turn could have passed it on to hundreds in Kashmir.
Bad news is that the fears of doctors are proving right. Majority of 62 people who tested positive in J&K are local Tabligis or people who came into direct contact with them.

Comment on this Story