17 more Tabligh members return home from India

Seventeen more Bangladeshi Tabligh Jamaat members, including eight women, returned home on Sunday night after languishing in an Indian jail for 40 days.

Mohsin Khan, officer-in-charge of Benapole Check-post Immigration Police, yesterday said Indian immigration police handed them over to the Bangladesh authorities through Benapole check-post around 11:30pm on Sunday.

All the returnees were sent to Gazir Dargah institutional quarantine in Jhikargachcha upazila of Jashore for 14 days, said Habibur Rahman, a medical officer of the health department of Benapole check-post.

The 17 Bangladeshis are residents of different areas of the country, our Benapole correspondent reports, quoting the officer. According to immigration police, 265 Tabligh Jamaat men went to India in February this year. They were staying there during the coronavirus outbreak.

Indian police arrested them from different parts of the country at the end of March for violation of the Foreigners Act, visa rules and Covid-19 lockdown rules.

Of them, the 17 Bangladeshi Tabligh Jamaat members were sent to central jail of Haryana after arrest, said immigration police, adding that a court of the state later sentenced them to 40 days' jail. The decision to return them was taken following discussion between high officials of the two countries after their jail term ended.

On August 7, 14 out of 265 Tabligh Jamaat members returned home after languishing in jail for the same period.