Lucknow, April 3 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath faces the toughest challenge of his political career in the prevailing scenario when members of the Tablighi Jamaat are proving to be major "Corona carriers".
Some of these corona carriers now face prolonged imprisonment under the National Security Act (NSA) after they reportedly misbehaved and assaulted female medical staff in a hospital in Ghaziabad.
Describing them as "enemies of humanity", Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered NSA that allows detention without charges for up to a year.
"They will not follow the law, nor will they accept order. They are the enemies of humanity, what they have done with women healthcare providers is a heinous crime. We are invoking the National Security Act against them, we will not spare them," Yogi Adityanath said on Friday.
He further said, "An incident like Indore where doctors were attacked should not be seen anywhere in the state. For this, we will take whatever action is required by law."
The Tablighi members, quarantined at Ghaziabad's M.M.G. Hospital, have been accused of passing lewd comments, roaming about without clothes in the isolation ward, using expletives, refusing medicine and asking for beedis and cigarettes, according to a written complaint to the police by the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital.
In Ghaziabad, officials have tracked down 136 who attended the religious gathering last month at Markaz Nizamuddin, the Delhi headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat, which is now a major coronavirus hotspot linked to nearly 650 cases and 12 deaths.
Six of them had symptoms of corona virus and were admitted to M.M.G. hospital on March 31 and one of them tested positive.
Ravindra Singh, the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital, said, "My staff complained many times, I spoke to the patients but they refused to listen. Finally, our staff said they cannot work under such circumstances, we were compelled to send a written complaint to the police."
The FIR charges the Tablighi members with assault or criminal force on women, obscenity and "malignant behaviour likely to spread infection".
It now seems that majority of the Tablighi members fanned out in Uttar Pradesh after the meeting when the lockdown began.
Most of them found refuge in mosques before the borders were sealed.
In the past 48 hours, a series of raids on mosques across the state have revealed that hundreds of Tablighis were in hiding in the state hiding because they did not give themselves up for corona tests.
Several states are tracking down members of the group, who travelled across the country in the middle of the corona virus crisis, violating all social distancing guidelines and escalating worries of COVID-19.
There are over 2,300 coronavirus cases in India, including 56 deaths and the number is rising by the hour.
( With inputs from IANS )