Hundreds of Tablighi Jamaat attendees still remain untraceable

Over 2000 members attended Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin Markaz mosque in Delhi in mid-March and then went back to their native states, said media reports.

It took the Delhi Police three days to prepare the list of the attendees of the religious congregation, said the report.

Since the phones of the attendees are switched off, the police are forced to conduct a door-to-door search to trace them. Delhi Police has also identified at least 198 foreign nationals who are staying in different mosques across India, it added.

So far, 25,550 Tablighi Jamaat attendees and their contacts have been traced and quarantined, said the Times Now report.

At least 9,000 people participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin in the second week of March.

Reports said several attendees remained in the Markaz mosque in Delhi's Nizamuddin  though the congregation ended before the lockdown was announced. Their stay in the mosque continued despite government appeals of social distancing at a time when the illness was wreaking havoc in foreign lands and several people from the affected nations attended the event.

Later, thousands of coronavirus cases in the country were found linked to the religious gathering.