BENGALURU, 3 MARCH

A resident of Tilak Nagar in South Jayanagar in the City who looked forward to undergoing the pilgrimage for Umrah and travelled there with his family on the holy pilgrimage went through a harrowing time and was detained at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

According to the police, his name and particulars matched with a ‘wanted criminal’ in a case dating back some 25 years. Diplomatic sources at the Indian Consulate in Jeddah told Salar News that the passenger identified as Mohammed Ghouse, 57, never travelled to Saudi Arabia or any other country in his life and this was his first trip abroad that landed him in huge trouble.

Ghouse, a transporter employed here in the City along with eight of his relatives, arrived in Saudi last week. Ghouse had embarked on the holy pilgrimage through an Umrah operator based at Cubbonpet. His nephew Mohammed Mutabbir, told Indian Diplomats that Ghouse was stopped upon arrival at the airport in Jeddah by the passport authorities. He said they took his passport and were under the impression that it was a routine procedure, and he was escorted to a separate room. The family was told that Ghouse’s data had matched with that of a criminal wanted by the police. Ghouse was handed over to the police in the Asir region whose capital headquarters Abha is 600 km away from Jeddah.

The family went through nerve-racking moments at this development and did not know which door to knock on to get the head of the family out of this mess. They approached the Indian consulate, which swung into action and a team of Indian diplomats rushed to the airport and met with the detained Umrah pilgrim.

After a detailed investigation he was allowed to go and perform Umrah. Data of Indians matching with wanted criminals is a huge problem in Gulf Cooperation Countries with a number of them being detained in Gulf Airports and then allowed to go after thorough verification.

Indian diplomats told their Gulf counterparts that an Aadhaar card number should be accessed in cases like this to give a clean chit to the flyer. During the last Haj season, an elderly pilgrim from Madhya Pradesh was also detained for mismatching details and was released later. —Salar News