Foreign Tablighi Jamaatis hope to go home

Eight months ago, Khansa, a 50-year-old Afghanistan national, came to India, leaving behind six children, to fulfil the wish of her dead son, a devout Tablighi Jamaat member who died a few years ago when he was all of 21 years.The young man had often dreamt of visiting the Nizamuddin Markaz in the Indian capital and frequently urged his parents – quite cynical of the Tablighi Jamaat then – to “focus on deen (religion) and not duniya (world),” which is what the 95 year-old Tablighi Jamaat tells its followers in 150 countries to do.Her son’s wish fulfilled, Khansa is still in India. She and thousands of others who visited the Markaz became embroiled in cases for violating visa conditions and lockdown norms that were in force to curb the spread of Covid-19. Now, even after getting the all-clear, getting back home is proving to be a prolonged nightmare for them.“She came to India with her husband to do what her son had wanted her to... But now she just wants to go back and cries a lot,” her friend Maisa said. Khansa and Maisa are staying at Zayed College in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, and were among the 78 women who accompanied their husbands to attend the Masturat (women’s Jamaat) of the Tablighi Jamaat.On August 27, Khansa and her husband were scheduled to catch a flight back home from New Delhi, but they were sent back from the airport – for the third time – because their exit papers were still being processed.Four Tablighi Jamaat members from Kyrgyzstan and three from a batch of 14 members from the Fiji Islands had to stay back recently because their papers were not in order. Most of them had been lodged in government institutional quarantine facilities and then shifted to centres run by the Tablighi Jamaat.Although the courts have exonerated them, over 310 Tablighi Jamaat members are stuck in New Delhi, waiting for their exit passes to be approved by that depend on clearances from the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices.The trouble for the Tablighi Jamaat members from overseas started in March, when about 3,000 of them were booked under the Indian Penal Code for alleged violations of their tourist visas, violation of lockdown norms and spreading Covid-19 by attending the Aalami Mashwara (quarterly consultation) in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin area. Additionally, about 100 of them have been saddled with double FIRs filed against them and 16 have lost their passports and have been issued temporary travel documents.For some, the prospects of returning home improved over the past few days. A group of 216 members left for Indonesia on August 26 in a private aircraft arranged by the Indonesian embassy. Now, as states lift flight and other restrictions, an increasing number of Jamaats are reaching New Delhi, hoping to get the help of their embassies and go home.A group 130 Jamaatis from Indonesia are scheduled to leave on September 16, while a batch of Malaysians is getting their papers sorted to leave in the next two weeks. Members from Vietnam and Iran who were stuck in the south are likely to arrive in Delhi soon.Long wait to go homeEven though courts in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai have quashed the cases against the members, it has been tough for them figuring out ways to get back home.Some 955 of them had been confined to quarantine centres for almost two months, even though they repeatedly tested negative, and were released only after the High Court of Delhi intervened. During this time, many have had to cope with personal tragedies and job losses.In May, after losing his phone and spending over a month in quarantine, a 49-year-old Tablighi Jamaat member from Djibouti learnt from Facebook that his wife had died. Unable to bear the sorrow, the man developed behavioural problems and fell ill, after which he was hospitalised for days.Another man from the same country was so dejected after he was lodged in Mandoli Jail in northeast Delhi, he turned suicidal and it was only after the intervention of senior leaders of the organisation that he was pacified.Two men from Tamil Nadu died while in quarantine, forcing the state government to intervene and call for better facilities for its people.Three Indonesian men told ET they used to work as security personnel and had saved up only enough money for a four-month Jamaat, and would now have to figure out what to do for a livelihood after going back.Getting out of quarantine itself was a hurdle. Maulana Mohammed Azad, a senior member of the organisation, said that when they asked the court to release members who had spent over a month in quarantine, they were given only three hours to come up with a plan to house them.Since April, the men have been housed in the office of Jamiat-e Ulema Hind – among the most influential Muslim bodies – in central Delhi and in a private hotel, while the women have been staying at Shaheen Bagh.While coping with separation from their families back home, some have become parents. Two weeks ago, a girl was born to an Indonesian couple. However, the days leading up to the baby’s birth were not easy. The doctor who examined the expectant woman anticipated some complications, while she insisted on a home birth.“We had a difficult time making her understand that going to the hospital for delivery was not forbidden in Islam,” said Saakhiya, a member from Maharashtra who is a volunteer. “All this was forgotten once the baby was born.”Although the courts have quashed cases against the members, their return home is taking time. In some cases, the immigration department has asked them to get no-objection certificates from the police.While 912 Jamaat members in Delhi who pleaded guilty at the Saket court were asked to pay fines starting from Rs 5,000, over 40 Tablighis, mostly from Thailand, Jordan, the US, Russia and Kazakhstan, chose not to plead guilty and opted for a legal trial.According to the organisation, of at least 750 Tablighi Jamaatis outside Delhi, only 200 have been able to leave the country so far. Senior members of the Jamaat meet with police officials regularly to get the process expedited.Last week, the Supreme Court asked Bihar and UP to expedite cases, a move welcomed by the organisation, which has been concerned about at least 40 members still jailed across the country, mostly in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand.“Particularly in Moradabad and Kishanganj, we have been trying hard for their bail,” a member said.Although the Tablighi Jamaat has never taken a political position, other Muslim organisations were initially reluctant to support it when the controversy broke out. However, by April, help started pouring in for the organisation, with many even offering to arrange for the foreigners to go back home.Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, a Supreme Court advocate who represents the Tablighi Jamaat, expressed concern over the impact of the events on the movement, which he said has spread across 150 countries and has emerged as a strong advocate for India.“This self-reform movement was always apolitical, peaceful and never controversial. Unfortunately, what has happened this year with the foreigners of around 60 countries who got entangled in legal proceedings will weaken our reputation and will divert future tourists from these countries to places like Pakistan... Today, India enjoys excellent relations with those countries. Blacklisting and denial of visas will cede space to our neighbouring countries, which will be a clear loss of soft power for India,” he told ET.

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