Quarantine must for evacuees after 10 test +ve | Economic Times

A group of about 77 people evacuated from Afghanistan on Tuesday were sent to a mandatory 14-day institutional quarantine at Delhi’s ITBP Chhawla Camp in Najafgarh after at least 10 of them were found Covid-19 positive. The evacuation was significant as three ‘swaroops’ of Shri Guru Granth Sahib were brought to India to save them from the Taliban. Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and V Muraleedharan, along with BJP spokesman RP Singh, on Tuesday received them at the IGI Airport. According to World Punjabi Organisation president Vikramdeep Sahney, after the IS attack at Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib in Kabul last year, seven such ‘swaroops’ were shifted to India. Puneet Singh Chandhok, president of the Indian World Forum, an organisation coordinating the evacuation efforts with the MEA and the IAF, said the ‘swaroops’ would be taken to Guru Arjan Dev Ji Gurdwara in New Mahavir Nagar. Kanv Bhalla, who is coordinating the rescue and rehabilitation efforts on behalf of the Mandeep Singh Sobti foundation and Indian agencies, told ET that as Kabul continued to remain tense, the task of coordinating with US forces was the most challenging. “But the Indian government walked us through it. This group did not even face issues the first one faced such as getting stuck in minibuses for hours. Many of the Sikhs that have come today are small-time businessmen. We are putting in place a plan for each family.” According to the people in the know, the group was taken out of Kabul on Monday to Doha, and from there they were brought to New Delhi. “Many of us did not have visas or passports, but Indian officials assured us of safety. It took us over six hours at the Delhi airport to finish documentation after which we were also tested for Covid-19 and given the first shot of vaccination,” a member of the group said.Daljeet Singh, an evacuee, said only three more ‘swaroops’ remained there which was unfortunate as it was the land that “Guru Nanak had visited and gurus such as Guru Har Rai had sent emissaries to spread the message of Sikhism”.