Chandrika Kumaratunga ‘detained’ at Srinagar airport

Former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga faced an embarrassing situation when she was ‘detained’ at the Srinagar airport after officials failed to identify her on arrival to take part in a SAARC cultural event, the Kashmir Times reported yesterday.
According to the report security officials had refused to allow Ms. Kumaratunga to leave the Srinagar airport on May 24 as she did not have a special visa and prior Home Ministry permission to participate in the event organized by the South Asia Foundation.
Her repeated pleas that she was a former president of Sri Lanka and that she was in Kashmir on the invitation of the Indian government had fallen on deaf ears.
Later the Sri Lankan High Commission in New Delhi intervened on her behalf and obtained a directive from the Home Ministry for Ms. Kumaratunga to exit the airport.
The newspaper also reported similar incident that also occurred last month when former Pakistani minister and human rights activist Ansar Burney deported him back to Dubai after he arrived in New Delhi to attend a conference on terrorism.
16/06/08 Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka

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Categories: Airports Jun 2008, Foreign Jun 2008