Enforcement agencies are under fire after five foreign nationals, who were reportedly part of Tablighi Jamaat, were shifted - first from the hotel they were being quarantined in at Yelahanka to a service apartment in Banaswadi and then back to Haj Bhavan - after local MLAs, councillors and residents staged protests at every ward.
The five people, shunted from location to location, are part of the group of 32 foreigners who had been arrested for violating visa norms and were originally quarantined at Haj Bhavan.
Some of them had been shifted from Haj Bhavan to hotels on Ballari Road in Yelahanka that had been identified as quarantine centres. According to officials, this was done to accommodate more cases. “However, on Friday night, Yelahanka constituency MLA S.R. Vishwanath and other locals staged a protest over their presence at the hotel in Yelahanka and demanded that they be shifted out,” said a senior officer.
The group were then taken to a service apartment in Kacharakanahalli ward, Banaswadi. However when word spread, hundreds started protesting. On Saturday morning, Kacharakanahalli councillor Padmanabha Reddy and local residents staged a protest in front of the Banaswadi police station, and demanded that they be taken back to the Haj Bhavan.
“The attendees, most of whom are foreign nationals, were earlier quarantined in Haj Bhavan.
They were suddenly shifted to a service apartment in a purely residential colony in Banaswadi. The residents were afraid of contracting COVID-19,” said Mr. Reddy.
Protesters alleged that the area is densely populated and the presence of the five people would increase their chances of getting infected. “We withdrew the protest only after assurance from BBMP that they would be shifted from there. They were taken away from the service apartment in two vans around 3 p.m. on Saturday,” Mr. Reddy added.
Senior police officials have written a letter to the Foreigner’s Regional Registration Officer on Saturday. They further requested the FRRO to issue the instructions to jurisdictional Ramamurthy Nagar police station to provide security/protection to these foreign national Tablighi Jamaat members.
As of Saturday night, they were back at Haj Bhavan.
