Varsity Prof among 30 Jamaatis held in UP

Tribune News Service & PTI

Prayagraj/Lucknow, April 21

A professor of Allahabad University has been arrested along with 29 persons, including 16 foreign participants of Tablighi Jamaat meet at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, an official said on Tuesday.

City SP Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava said Prof Mohammed Shahid was arrested for arranging shelter for Indonesians among the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members in a mosque here and not informing the police about them. One of the Indonesians had earlier tested Covid positive.

Shrivastava said others included nine from Thailand, one each from Kerala and West Bengal besides eleven others associated with Abdullah mosque and Hera mosques at Kareli in the city.

While the professor has been remanded to judicial custody after the arrest, others have been kept in isolation, the SP said.

Meanwhile, the UP Government has announced setting up of temporary jails to keep the Tablighi Jamaat members, both Indians and foreigners, once they complete their quarantine. Additional Chief Secretary Avanish Awasthi said all divisional commissioners, district magistrates and police commissioners of Lucknow and Gautam Buddha Nagar had been instructed to set up such temporary jails in their respective areas.

In Saharanpur 60 Jamaatis, including 54 foreigners, who violated visa rules, would be moved to the temporary jails.

Of the 68 samples tested in Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute today, 33 were positive. According to Awasthi, they are all Jamaatis. Of the 17 persons arrested in Moradabad for attacking a health team, five have since tested positive.

Until now, there are 1,294 Covid positive cases in UP, including 20 deaths.