Even as thousands of Tablighi Jamaat members have scattered across the country after contracting coronavirus, India’s police officers are literally putting themselves in harm’s way to nab them.
A senior police inspector, who held 21 foreign nationals and also Tablighi Jamaat members in Mumbra, Maharashtra, has tested positive for coronavirus, India Today reports. The police inspector had led an operation to apprehend the 21 foreign nationals in Mumbra after the Tablighi Jammat event at Nizamuddin area in Delhi amid the coronavirus outbreak.
During the operation, the senior police inspector had apprehended 13 Bangladeshi nationals and eight Malaysian nationals who had attended the Delhi event of Tablighi Jamaat in March. The 21 foreign nationals had travelled to Tamil Nadu and then to Mumbra in Maharashtra and had been in hiding since then in a mosque and a school.
Despite the government advisory and appeal, they did not appear before the authorities. The Mumbra police had also registered two offences against the mosque and the school trustees for giving shelter to the foreign nationals and not informing authorities.
After apprehending the Tablighi Jamaat members in Mumbra, the inspector made sure all the 21 foreign nationals and trustees were quarantined in a facility and tested for coronavirus.
Soon after, the police inspector started showing symptoms of Covid-19 and was tested for it. The test results arrived on Friday. He is presently admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Nashik.
Contracting the coronavirus isn’t the only risk that police officers in India face — elsewhere, officers have been attacked by citizens for enforcing lockdowns. In Mumbai, a police officer was injured after one Naeem didn’t stop his bike when directed to do so, and dragged the officer for 25 meters when he tried to stop him. Yesterday, Shaikh Farookh Shaikh Kadar (52) and Shaikh Sharukh Shaikh Farookh (24), had been arrested for assaulting a police officer who was trying to enforce the lockdown in Aurangabad. Last week, two men identified as Tajuddin and Kutubuddin, who were performing stunts on their bikes, had been arrested by the Bengaluru police after they’d attacked police officers who were trying to enforce the lockdown.
