The Central Government has decided to blacklist 800 preachers from Indonesia, after they attended a religious conference on a tourist visa, a couple of weeks ago. Ever since the conference was held, many of the Indian attendees have started showing symptoms of COVID-19.
8000 people from across the country had attended the 3-day conference
Held at the Alami Markaz Banglewali Masjid, the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of south Delhi, around 8000 people from across India had attended the conference.
Reports have come out that many of the COVID-19 patients in India had either attended the meet or were in close association with the ones who had been to the conference.
The preachers came on a Tourist Visa
India allows the citizens of Indonesia to avail the Tourist Visa on arrival to the country. However, attending a religious conference with this Visa is a violation of the rules.
An official said:
“They came here on a tourist visa but were participating in religious conferences, this is a violation of visa rules. We are going to blacklist around 800 Indonesian preachers so that in future they are not able to enter the country.”
Adding fuel to the fire, it is said that the preachers then divided themselves into batches and attended meetings in different states such as Telangana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha.
Many of the attendees have already contracted the deadly virus
The official added:
“Around 50% of COVID-19 positive cases in Telangana are linked to the meetings organized by the preachers. Around 350 people from Telangana had also attended the conference in Delhi.”
In fact, recently, a 65-year-old man from Srinagar, who had attended the conference, died of the coronavirus.
