Focus shifts on Deoband congregation after two participants from Telangana test positive

Hyderabad: A new situation has developed after two people from Nirmal district, who participated in the religious congregation at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, tested positive for coronavirus.

Official sources said a congregation took place at Deoband in UP a few days ahead of the Nizamuddin event. Reportedly, over 100 people from Telangana participated in the congregation.

Musharraf Ali Faruqui, Collector, Nirmal district told NewsMeter, “We have traced three Deoband participants in Nirmal. Out of them only two were Corona positive. We don’t think anymore people have visited Deoband from Nirmal. There is a possibility for similar cases is Nizamabad. The three people reached back Nirmal between 18 and 19 March. We have a total of 19 covid cases in the district. Primary tracing is complete for 17 of them and the samples are sent to Hyderabad.”

“There is a possibility that participants of Deoband might have also visited Nizamuddin. They might have also visited Ajmer Dargah in Rajasthan en route to Telangana. We don’t have information on how many people from the state actually visited Deoband. It needs to be investigated," Superintendent to the collector office told NewsMeter.

People reportedly have visited Mohammadi Masjid, which is 150 km away from Deoband.

Earlier Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had announced that all the participants of Tablighi Jamaat Markaz congregation have been traced. He also maintained that their primary and secondary contacts have been traced and quarantined.