Chennai:The Federation of Islamic Organizations and Political Parties of Tamil Nadu has disapproved and expressed dismay over the shifting of around 130 arrested foreign Muslims to a sub-jail which has poor hygienic conditions with the absence of basic facilities. These are the Muslim foreigners who had come to India for preaching purposes.
P A Kajamoinudeen Bakavi, President of the federation, which consists of 24 organizations and political parties demanded the immediate release of the preachers and their evacuation to respective nations.
In a statement, Bakavi showed concern for the foreigners stuck and the way Tamil Nadu was handling the situation, considering them to be terrorists, “These foreign preachers had travelled to Tamil Nadu with valid travel documents, but they are treated like terrorists. I have asked the state government to treat the preachers respectfully and take necessary measures to send them to their respective countries,” Bakavi said.
A foreigner’s detention center has been built at the Borstal school in the Puzhal prison complex in northeast Chennai. This detention center will contain 125 foreign nationals belonging to Tablighi Jamaat (TJ). Presently, they are at the Saidapet Sub-jail located in central Chennai as only the ones who get bail will be shifted here. The Saidapet jail was constructed during the British rule and only one portion of the jail was renovated with the rest in poor condition.
The foreign TJ members were arrested from various parts of Tamil Nadu for violating visa norms by practicing religious preaching, according to the police.
Among these 125 foreign nationals there are 12 are women preachers, the rest are male preachers. Out of these, 13 male members are from Bangladesh, 13 from Myanmar, 14 from Thailand, more than 10 from Malaysia, 46 from Indonesia among which 6 are women, 8 are from Ethiopia, in these 4 are women and 9 are from France, besides other countries.
The women among the arrested persons were kept in the renovated portion of the sub-jail while the men were housed in the old portions which are in poor condition with rough flooring in an unhygienic state.
Half of them hadnt even been to the conference of Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi, they’d come to Tamil Nadu before the covid hit the world, the ones who attended the conference came to Tamil Nadu to visit after it ended.
“The foreign tourists are suffering a lot in the Saidapet Sub-Jail, which has poor hygienic conditions. They are not able to sleep as the floor is uneven,” the Federation said in a statement.
These Muslim men and women have been taken into custody only in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Jharkhand and nowhere else, the Federation said. The Federation demanded that the Tamil Nadu government immediately shift these foreigners to atleast a prison with all basic facilities and hygienic conditions.
