In a significant development that can serve as a precursor to similar actions against other anti-India forces, the Central Government has banned more than 2,200 blacklisted foreign nationals from entering India for 10 years for their involvement in Tablighi Jamaat activities. The Union Home Ministry has ordered to blacklist these foreign nationals, reports ANI quoting government sources.
These foreign nationals had entered India on tourist Visas but had involved in Tablighi Jamaat activities including the infamous Markaz at Nizamuddin in Delhi. Many of these foreign nationals who had entered India as tourists or quoting other reasons, were found hiding in various Mosques and Muslim majority areas in several states of India. Most of them were found in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra. Several of them were also found hiding in mosques in Karnataka, UP, Telangana and Kerala too.
In April, Delhi Police had charged these foreign nationals had violated the conditions of their visas by joining the Islamic congregation at Nizamuddin, and were hence liable to be prosecuted under Section 14 of the Indian Foreigners Act, 1946.
Tablighi Jamaat members from Indonesia are suspected to have brought the Corona virus infection with them which then later spread to other members at the Markaz at Nizamuddin as they stayed there for several days. The Tablighi Jamaat members then traveled to other parts of India thereby spreading the virus to places they went to. During the initial days, the state governments mentioned the source of Corona infections as ‘Tablighi Jamaat Event in Delhi’ but later changed to ‘Single source’ event and subsequently stopped mentioning the same.
The spread of Corona had given rise to demands to ban such foreign nationals who enter India on false pretexts. With this move, the GOI has showed that it will take strict measures to stop such practices that are detrimental to the interests of India.
It is also widely known that many foreign Christian Missionaries enter India on tourist or business Visas and indulge in conversions and faith healing which is illegal. Organiser has covered such cases repeatedly where foreign nationals are invited by Christian NGOs in India who take part in conversion activites in rural areas and trap gullible people using faith healing and false claims. They also involve in FCRA fraud by seeking funds from abroad but submit fake reports to the government.
