TJ Jaunpur chief dies of suspected cardiac arrest

VARANASI: Tablighi Jamaat’s ‘amir’ (district chief) for Jaunpur, Naseem Ahmad, died at the Jaunpur district hospital on Wednesday of suspected cardiac arrest. Ahmad, a heart patient, was lodged at a temporary jail in the district after his arrest in first week of April for illegally harbouring foreign nationals and was shifted to the hospital after his condition deteriorated in the morning.
Divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal said, “Ahmad, who was booked in a case of arranging shelter for TJ attendees, including 14 Bangladeshis, without reporting their presence to the district administration, was a heart patient and was hospitalised twice in past nine days.Cardiac arrest is suspected as reason for death. Jaunpur police has sent his body for postmortem.”
According to officials, Ahmad, a native of Firozpur in Jaunpur, had returned from Delhi after attending TJ’s markaj at Nizamuddin on March 9. After it, a batch of 16 TJ attendees including 14 Bangladeshi had reached Jaunpur. These 16 TJ attendees initially stayed at Bada Masjid in city area. But, when police intensified drive against TJ attendees present in Jaunpur district without informing the administration and police, Ahmad arranged a shelter for them near Lal Masjid in Saraikhwaja police station area limits.
On March 31, Saraikhwaja police arrested 14 Bangladeshis along with Yasin Ansari of Jharkhand and Mohd Abul Motalib of West Bengal. All these persons were booked under appropriate sections of Epidemic Diseases Act, Passport Act and Foreigners Act.
The commissioner said, “During investigation it came to light that Ahmad had arranged shelter for them, after which a case was lodged against him and he was arrested. Initially, Ahmad was kept in quarantine centre where his COVID-19 test had also been conducted and he was found uninfected,” he said adding, “later, he was sent to a temporary jail created in a school premises by Jaunpur administration for epidemic offenders.”
“On April 28, the health condition of Ahmad deteriorated and he was admitted to the district hospital and also sent to BHU hospital for proper check-up,” the commissioner said adding, “following improvement in his condition he was sent back to the temporary jail. He was admitted again to Jaunpur district hospital on April 30, from where he was discharged after improvement in his condition.”
“Ahmad’s health condition deteriorated again on Wednesday morning and he was rushed to the district hospital, where he later died,” the commissioner said while mentioning cardiac arrest as suspected as reason of his death. His body has been sent for postmortem, he added.