Tablighi Jamaat congregation: MHA alerts Railway Ministry for passengers contact tracing

According to a senior official of the railway ministry, the Ministry has alerted all its zonal headquarters across India to trace lakhs of passengers who travelled from New Delhi in between March 13 to 19 after Union Home Ministry has put them under COVID-19 scanner following intelligence inputs that they have participated in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi.

New Delhi: The Railway Ministry has alerted all its zonal headquarters across India to trace lakhs of passengers who travelled from New Delhi in between March 13 to 19 after Union Home Ministry has put them under COVID-19 scanner following intelligence inputs that they have participated in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi.

The railway ministry, according to a senior official, has started compiling travellers chart of seven days so that these can be circulated to all the frontier railways for necessary actions.

“In next one or two days we will send all the travellers details to the zonal headquarters so that they can also forward it to the district administration for contact tracing,” said the senior official who did not want to be named.

Officials said that five trains namely Duronto Express to Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, the Grand Trunk Express to Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Express to Chennai, New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express and the AP Sampark Kranti Express have been shortlisted as many of most of the Tablighi Jamaat workers are believed to have travelled in these trains.

“The passengers generally need to fill up forms before getting their tickets. We will take the help of those forms to trace down their address,” said the official.

The railways are, however, in a tizzy with the actual number of people who could have come in contact with the Tablighi Jamaat participants. The official said that each train carried near about 1500 passengers and other staff members.

It may be mentioned here that 10 Indonesians who took the AP Sampark Kranti Express back to Karimnagar district after the event on March 13 were subsequently found COVID-19 positive.

A Malaysian woman who travelled in New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express on March 16 with 23 others, tested positive in Jharkhand.

Officials said at least 60 passengers who travelled on the same train are believed to be part of Nizamuddin Tablighi cluster.

Ever since the Nizamuddin Markez issue of Tablighi Jamaat congregation has come to limelight, all the government agencies have been alerted.

“This is an infectious disease and there is every possibility that many of the Tablighi Jamaat workers who have visited across India might be the carrier of infection,” said a health ministry official.

Reports said that six Tablighi Jamaat workers died of COVID 19 in Telangana recently while a few have been found positive in other parts of the country.

It may be mentioned here that Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station registers a footfall of more than two lakh every day, whereas New Delhi railway station registers daily footfall of around 4.5 lakh.