New Delhi: A hunt for the cheapest ticket to reach his place of work in Dubai landed Ismail Bhatkal in trouble at the Pune airport on Monday evening. The nightmare that followed lasted for two whole days.
“Ye zulm ho raha hai hum par, ye galat hai [This is injustice and whatever happened was not right],” says a distraught Abdul Raoof, father of Ismail Musab Raoof Ahmed, who was detained at the airport by intelligence agencies, who suspected he was travelling to Syria to join the Islamic State. Ismail was released by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday night after agencies verified his antecedents.
Abdul Raoof, Ismail’s father, told The Hindu on the phone from Mumbai: “My son has been released but has been asked to be in Mumbai for now. He was on his way to Dubai to earn money. He got his visa only 10 days ago. They have not said why he was arrested.” Raoof sells raw sevai (sweet dish) in Bhatkal, Karnataka. His son is a daily wage labourer. This was not the first time that Ismail had flown out of the country.
He got his passport in 2015 and first went to Dubai 10 months ago.
A senior NIA official said a look out circular (LOC) had been issued in Ismail’s name and as soon as he reached the immigration desk at the Pune airport, he was handed over to the agencies.
Raoof said his son chose to travel to Pune to catch a flight to Dubai as he was getting cheaper tickets there. “We checked the air fare at the Bangalore and Mumbai airports. It was anywhere between Rs.22,000 and Rs.25,000. The ticket was cheapest at the Pune airport: Rs. 12,000 for an Air India flight to Dubai. It made sense to board the flight there.”
The NIA official declined to say Ismail’s detention was a case of mistaken identity.
09/04/16 Vijaita Singh/The Hindu
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“Ye zulm ho raha hai hum par, ye galat hai [This is injustice and whatever happened was not right],” says a distraught Abdul Raoof, father of Ismail Musab Raoof Ahmed, who was detained at the airport by intelligence agencies, who suspected he was travelling to Syria to join the Islamic State. Ismail was released by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday night after agencies verified his antecedents.
Abdul Raoof, Ismail’s father, told The Hindu on the phone from Mumbai: “My son has been released but has been asked to be in Mumbai for now. He was on his way to Dubai to earn money. He got his visa only 10 days ago. They have not said why he was arrested.” Raoof sells raw sevai (sweet dish) in Bhatkal, Karnataka. His son is a daily wage labourer. This was not the first time that Ismail had flown out of the country.
He got his passport in 2015 and first went to Dubai 10 months ago.
A senior NIA official said a look out circular (LOC) had been issued in Ismail’s name and as soon as he reached the immigration desk at the Pune airport, he was handed over to the agencies.
Raoof said his son chose to travel to Pune to catch a flight to Dubai as he was getting cheaper tickets there. “We checked the air fare at the Bangalore and Mumbai airports. It was anywhere between Rs.22,000 and Rs.25,000. The ticket was cheapest at the Pune airport: Rs. 12,000 for an Air India flight to Dubai. It made sense to board the flight there.”
The NIA official declined to say Ismail’s detention was a case of mistaken identity.
09/04/16 Vijaita Singh/The Hindu
