14 Tabligh Jamaat members return home from India

Fourteen Bangladeshi Tabligh Jamaat members returned home last night after languishing in an Indian jail for 40 days.

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

The 14 Bangladeshis are residents of different areas including Dhaka, our Benapole correspondent reports quoting the OC.

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.

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 at the end of March for violation of the Foreigners Act, visa rules and Covid-19 lockdown rules, according to our New Delhi correspondent.

They were sent to central jail in Uttar Pradesh of India after their arrest, said the 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.