69 Tablighi Jamaat members yet to be traced

Kolkata, Apr 05: West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh claimed 69 foreigners, who came to the state after attending the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, remain untraced.

He urged the state government to find their whereabouts and place them under quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Of the 109 foreign nationals who came to West Bengal from the congregation, only 40 have been tracked down by the government and quarantined at a centre in Rajarhat, Ghosh said, addressing a press meet at his residence here.

"We have information that 69 others still remain untraced, posing a serious threat... It can be assumed that many of them could be infected with the dreaded virus, but our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seems to have washed her hands off this," he alleged.

He claimed that many of the 160 Indians, who returned to West Bengal from the congregation, are untraced as well.

The BJP leader also accused Banerjee of trying to suppress the number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the state.

Reacting to Ghosh's allegations, Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said, "It is unfortunate that the BJP is interested in cheap politics when the country and the state are going through such a massive crisis."