Eight Kyrgyzstan nationals who attended Tablighi meet booked for visa violation

Eight Kyrgyzstan nationals who were quarantined in Bidar, have been booked for violating visa norms on Tuesday. The eight foreign nationals were religious missionaries, who had come to Karnataka on a tourist visa. The tourists had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi. 

“We have booked them under Section 14 (b) (does any act in violation of the conditions of the valid visa) of the Foreigners Act. They had come here on a tourist visa but were actually religious missionaries. That is not allowed in a tourist visa,” Bidar SP Nagaraj told TNM.  

FIR’s regarding the same have been registered against four of them in Gandhi Gunj Police Station and against four others in the Bidar Town Police Station.

The eight Kyrgyzstan nationals arrived in Karnataka’s Bidar after March 10. They allegedly lived in a mosque in the town for a few days. They are in quarantine currently at the Ratkalpura mosque in Bidar. 

“The men who came here had enlisted the help of people in Odisha to carry out religious activities in Bidar. We have informed the Kyrgyzstan Embassy about the visa violation, and their travel history. Their quarantine period ends on April 21. The government officials must take a call on it,” SP Nagaraj added. 

Till date, 27 people from the state, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation between March 13 and 18 in Delhi, have tested positive for SARS-Cov-2. In total, 175 people have tested positive in the state.

Of the 12 new cases reported on Tuesday, two people suffer from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection. One of them is an 80-year-old woman from Gadag district, the other was a 52-year-old man from Kalaburagi. Among the 12 new cases, 6 of them had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. 

Three of the 175 patients are on ventilator. This includes a 63-year-old woman from Bengaluru, with travel history to Brazil, a 62-year-old woman from Bengaluru with no travel history abroad and a 24-year-old man from Bengaluru with no travel history abroad.