Kolkata, June 05: The West Bengal government provided police protection to Bangladeshi Jamaatis who joined the Tablighi Jamaat and helped them in deporting to their country.
However, questions are being raised when pictures of their expulsion went viral on various platforms of social media.
Sources in the state home department have clarified that 2200 Islamists from the country and overseas gathered in the Tablighi Jamaat program in Nizamuddin Markaz, Delhi. Among them were 108 citizens from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries who fled Delhi to Kolkata.
However, all these Jamaatis were identified and kept in the Quarantine Centre at Rajarhat. They were given police protection and taken to the Petrapole border of Indian side from where the security agencies of Bangladesh have taken them along, informed sources in the state Home department.
The state government had hidden information about this earlier, but when its pictures went viral and people started asking questions, then the state home department has given a clarification.
Home Secretary Alapan Banerjee has claimed that whatever has been done has been done on the instructions of the Central Government.
Banerjee alleged that ever since the people of Tabligi Jamaat were kept in custody, state government were constantly kept in touch with the Central Government for other steps including action on them.
βIt was instructed from the Centre that all the gathering citizens will have to leave under the tight security of the police to the extent of their country. So the state government has released them with a police escort,β said Home Secretary.
He said that everything has been done in this transparent manner and nothing has been hidden.
It is noteworthy that all foreign nationals have been blacklisted for 10 years due to coming to India on tourist visa but later joined religious gathering, when nationwide lockdown was declared in wake of coronavirus outbreak on March 24, in Nizamuddin Markaz.
The state home secretary has claimed that none of the Jamaatis who deported to Bengal were found to be corona positive. The criminal record of all was also scrutinized.
