Port Blair, May 14: Seven Myanmarese poachers, who were on quarantine after their arrest last month from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, were tested negative for novel corona-virus infection, an official said here on Wednesday.
The poachers were apprehended from a forest near Kakana village in Nicobar district of the archipelago on April 24. They were then sent for institutional quarantine at Kamorta under police surveillance.
Their samples were sent to Port Blair for Covid-19 testing and the results were found to be negative, the official said. They would soon be brought from Kamorta to Port Blair to initiate legal action against them.
Poachers from Myanmar sneak into the islands of Andaman and Nicobar and take away valuable fish and precious corals. (Courtesy: PTI)

Staff Correspondent

Port Blair, Apr 28: Arrest of Mr. Zubair Ahmed, a freelance journalist triggered a ripple in Andaman today. Several national news portals and news channels carried the news and raised concerns.

As per reports, Mr. Zubair Ahmed had read an article in the Andaman Chronicle about how a family who had spoken to a COVID-19 patient on the phone was quarantined for 28 days.

Later in Twitter Mr. Zubair Ahmed sought an explanation from the Andaman administration, and also warned others that calls were being traced of those who had been quarantined.

On 27 April evening, Mr. Zubair was summoned by the police and was later charged with a non-bailable offence with the police accusing him of spreading false information with an intention to obstruct the administration’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the Islands.. Today afternoon however he got conditional bail.

Meanwhile, the police department has mentioned that the arrest was so that people in the Andamans don’t end up hiding information.

Later Andaman Sheekha daily contacted the Director General of Police over message and asked for a statement in this regard for more clarity among Islanders.

According to the DGP (Director General of Police) Mr. Deependra Pathak, A & N Police had to take that step because what Mr. Zubair Ahmed was claiming was not true (according to police).

The Director General of Police, A & N Islands, Mr. Deependra Pathak also put out a statement, which is published below without any change for public information:

“Yesterday, on 27-04-2020, Legal action has been taken against one Zubair Ahmed, a self-styled/proclaimed journalist who is not a registered media person for posting the inciting, false and instigating tweet having potential to disrupt public harmony, violating government order and to create panic among public (vide Fir No – 233/20 PS Aberdeen, dated -27/4/20 under section 188,269,270, 505(1) IPC and 51, 54 DM Act.) He has been arrested and produced before the Ld. Court today. Further, apart from the tweet, information about his informal efforts to dissuade corona positives/quarantined contacts not to reveal details to Admn came up which may jeopardise the very effort of isolating the correct suspects and contain the pandemic from spreading. The accused is a resident of Bambooflat area, most of which is declared a containment area after several cases emerged from there. Extensive contact tracing exercise is underway in the area currently. However, such messages instigate creating distrust among public for the well-established and universal health and contact-tracing protocols, thus motivating people to conceal correct information, falsify their statements, do not cooperate and/or protest against medical protocols and even break the lockdown and gather in large numbers publicly etc.

Legal action was essential so that members of public in the territory do not panic or give any false statement or create wrong data or gather in large numbers in protest endangering life at large. The action has absolutely been taken impartial. Even government officers and their spouse and child have not been spared. These are challenging times. A single false information or instigating message can ruin, damage, frustrate and nullify the entire effort put in so far to contain and prevent the spread of Coronavirus,” the statement by the Director General of Police said.