The High Commissioner of Malaysia has written to the Delhi government, requesting to release around 120 people from Malaysia, connected to a religious gathering at a centre in Nizamuddin in mid-March, said sources.
The High Commissioner made the request in a letter written to Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on May 20 and it has been forwarded to the government.
“The government has been coordinating with the MHA on the issue of foreign nationals connected to the event in Nizamuddin. The government cannot do anything without the MHA’s permission on this,” an official source told The Hindu .
Currently, these foreign nationals are at the government-provided accommodations. The government is yet to reply to the High Commissioner.
In an operation which concluded in the wee hours of April 1, a total of 2,346 people were evacuated from the centre in Nizamuddin and 536 of them were sent to hospitals and 1,810 were sent to quarantine facilities.
“About 270 of them were foreign nationals and later people who attended the religious gathering in Nizamuddin were staying in other mosques across the city were also evacuated. There were around 570 foreign nationals in total connected to the event,” the source said.
In total, 3,000 odd people were tracked back to the religious gathering in Nizamuddin and around 1,100 of them tested positive for COVID-19 just in Delhi alone.
