Officials Of Tablighi Jamaat Charged With Defying Restrictions

Over 400 people with COVID-19 symptoms hospitalised, over 1,000 quarantined

- Nikhil Babu & Saurabh Trivedi

With at least 24 of its occupants testing positive for the novel coronavirus, an Islamic centre in the national capital has turned out to be the latest hotspot of COVID-19. More than 400 people with symptoms were admitted to different hospitals and over 1,100 shifted to government-run quarantine facilities in Delhi alone over Monday and Tuesday, officials said.

Hundreds of others who returned home after staying at the centre over the last fortnight might have carried the virus to several States, authorities fear.

Thousands of people from across the country, as well as from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, attended a gathering at the centre earlier this month over a number of days, officials said. A large number of them were stuck on the premises as the country went into lockdown on March 24. Markaz Nizamuddin is the international headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat, a puritanical Islamic sect.