Daijiworld Media Network - Bhatkal (SP)

Bhatkal, Jun 11: A student from the town, who had gone to Bengaluru airport to catch a flight to Sharjah is understood to have been prevented from boarding the aircraft just because he hailed from this place.

Speaking to Daijiworld over phone, Arsalan Ahmed Qazi said that the staff managing the immigration formalities initially wanted to know whether he knew Yaseen Bhatkal. When Arsalan replied in the negative and said he had no contact whatever with the notorious fugitive, they told him that his passport details needed to be verified.

After he was made to wait over two hours, Air Arabia staff contacted him to tell that there was a problem with his Visa and that they needed original Visa through email immediately. Arasalan said he called his brother and provided to them the original visa received through his cell phone.

Then the Air Arabia personnel asked him to complete immigration formalities before boarding the aircraft. The iimmigration officials were not inclined to hand over to him his passport, and his flight took off without him, he said. 'I missed the flight. After a long wait, my passport, visa and tickets were returned to me. I lost the money I spent on the ticket,' he rued.

Arsalan said he wanted to visit the Gulf on vacation. He was to board the Air Arabia flight to Sharjah from Bengaluru at 4.35 am on Wednesday, June 10.

Arsalan hails from Jamiabad in Bhatkal, and is a student of Jamia Islamia Madrassa in Bhatkal. Earlier too he had visited Dubai twice to visit his father on vacation.

Bhatkal people have expressed their anger on the attitude of the officer and the discriminatory treatment meted out to one of their own. Locals are pressurizing Tanzeem (local social organisation) to take up the matter.