Repatriation process of 19 Tabligh men from India begins

The West Bengal government, along with the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, has begun the repatriation process of 19 Tablighi Jamaat members from the neighbouring country.

They have been stuck in the state since the Covid-19 outbreak in March, after all of them recently tested negative for the virus.

According to sources in the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, the Tabligh Jamaat members are now lodged at a house near the India-Bangladesh border.

More than 250 members of Tablighi-Jamaat in Bangladesh had gone to India to attend a congregation at Nizamuddin in New Delhi in March.

"Nineteen of them were quarantined in Kolkata on their return from the Markaz (headquarters) and were subjected to official procedures.

They were then moved to a house near the border," said a senior official of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission said. A senior West Bengal government official also confirmed the development.

However, "All these Tablighis recently tested negative for the virus. So, the process for their return has been initiated," the official said.

"Talks are on with authorities concerned, including the Indian government," the official added.

The Tablighi Jamaat's Markaz in Delhi's Nizamuddin West had emerged as a coronavirus hotspot in April this year after several people, who attended the religious congregation there in the second week of March, had tested positive for Covid-19.