Rajbiraj (HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE): Nine persons from Rajbiraj, Saptari, who had participated in a Muslim congregation in India and returned home after secretly crossing the border have been placed in quarantine.

Police detained them from their homes and placed them in a quarantine facility set up at the local Sai Krishna Teaching Hospital today. Of those placed in quarantine, seven are from Ward No 4, while one each are from wards 3 and 7 of Rajbiraj.

Saptari Police had intensified search for those who attended the religious congregation in India following a report in Indian new media that a number of participants at the gathering had tested positive for coronavirus and that the gathering had 19 participants from Nepal.

According to District Police Office Deputy Superintendent of Police Tilak Bharati, the quarantined persons had crossed over to Nepal during the night on Sunday and Monday.

“As per our information, more people from the district, from places other than Rajbiraj, also participated in the Muslim religious congregation and some of them have now returned home secretly. We’ll find all of them and put them in quarantine,” the DSP said.

District Health Office Chief Duniyalal Yadav, on his part, has also urged all attendees of the religious gathering who have returned home secretly to come in contact.

“It’s the height of irresponsibility and against humanity to put hundreds of lives at risk by refusing to stay in quarantine, so I hereby urge everyone, who participated in that gathering and came home and haven’t been in quarantine, to come in contact with the authorities concerned and stay in quarantine for the designated period,” he said.

Meanwhile, a few of those now quarantined have claimed that they didn’t go to participate in the gathering in Delhi but returned from a similar programme in Bihar.

https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/nine-participants-of-religious-congregation-quarantined/