India, May 1 -- It was an adage about Hindi films in the 1970s and 1980s that the police always arrived in the end. There seemed to be a re-run of it in real life when Delhi Police personnel reached the Nizamuddin Markaz mosque on Sunday, March 29, as part of the COVID evacuation exercise, several days after the Tablighi Jamaat event (March 13-15) had concluded and many of the participants had departed to various parts of the country. Attendees took home not only the message of reverting to true Islam but many also carried the strain of the Novel Coronavirus. The rest stayed back in the enormous six-floor dormitory of the Markaz mosque before being caught up in the lockdown.

The evacuation lasted for 72-odd hours involving police personn...