Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JS)

Mangaluru, Mar 9: Alleging unnecessary harassment of passengers from Kasargod district at Mangaluru international airport, the Kerala State Muslim Youth League on Wednesday March 9 organized a protest near the airport and demanded that airport officials who indulge in such harassment should be replaced.

Addressing the gathering, A K M Ashraf, president of Manjeshwar said, "Mangaluru airport is an important airport on which expatriates of Kasargod and other nearby districts of Kerala depend on for travelling abroad. Sadly, it has become common for expatriates, particularly of Kasargod district to be harassed, ill-treated and humiliated unnecessarily by the airport authorities.

"The airport authorities always misbehave with the poor air passengers and take them for a ride, unnecessarily detaining and interrogating them for hours only with the intention to harass them. We had informed about the same to the civil aviation minister and the chief minister of Kerala, but to no avail," he alleged.

Giving examples of alleged harassment, he said, "We had informed about this ill-treatment to airport director J T Radhakrishna, but he denied that such things happen at the aiport. I can give examples wherein passengers were unnecessarily harassed. A few days back, a passenger of Kasargod named Abdul Khader was travelling back from Dubai. He had bought an iPod for his child, but the customs officials stopped him saying that there was a bomb in the iPod. A few hours later, police and mediapersons visited his house and when his father was informed about the same, he told the police officials that if his son was involved in such activities, he himself would kill him. But after 24 hours, when the forensic experts from Delhi checked the iPod, nothing was found in it. He was then left with just an apology. In this case, who will pay for the damage caused to his reputation? He was just a ordinary person who was working abroad to feed his family.

"In another incident, a person named Mohammed Azharuddin, a Ranji player from Kerala, was travelling to Doha. But he was stopped by the immigration officers who claimed that his visa was fake. But after four hours of harassment, the visa was found to be genuine and he was allowed to travel, with officials just saying sorry. Such incidents are repeatedly occuring.

"Such attitude based on name and place of a person is not acceptable. We are not saying that they should not check passengers, but harassing them unnecessarily is not right. Though we are from Kerala, it is our airport too and we will fight to set things right," he asserted.

P B Abdul Razak, MLA of Manjeshwar said, "Even we had fought in support of the establishment of international airport in Mangaluru. When Maharashtra had opposed the plan to have an international airport in Mangaluru, we had condemned Maharashtra. Many passengers from Kasargod and neighbouring districts depend on this airport for their travel. I have travelled to Gulf countries and I have noticed such kind of behaviour from officials at the airport. Let this protest be a warning. Officials should take it seriously and change their attitude. Officials who are involved in unnecessary harassment should be replaced."

On asked whether he was taking part in the protest in view of the upcoming elections in Kerala, Razak brushed aside the allegation and said, "No, this protest was planned a month ago even before elections were announced."

Asked whether there should be no checking done at the airport, he said, "Checking is fine, but unnecessarily harassing passengers by tearing their visas saying that they had expired is not right. Harassment on the basis of name and region of the passenger should not happen."

To a question whether the protest had anything to do with the new international airport coming up in Kannur, he said, "This (Mangaluru airport) is our airport and we will still travel from here. This is just a symbolic protest to fight against the wrongs happening here."

In view of the protest, security was tightened at the airport and all vehicles entering the premises were subjected to checks.

Airport director's response

Speaking to daijiworld, airport director J T Radhakrishna responded to the allegations and said, "About 2,000 international passengers travel everyday from Mangaluru airport. Sometimes it may have happened that one person among the crowd would evoke suspicion and be checked for security reasons. But Mangaluru airport ranks second in south India in terms of customer satisfaction and 5th among tier two airports in the country."

On the incident relating to the Doha-bound passenger from Kasargod as narrated by K M Ashraf, he said, "A person has to carry a particular amount when travelling to Qatar, otherwise he will be sent back and the airline has to pay the fine. Such incidents have happened twice. That is the reason the passenger might have been stopped."

On the iPod incident, he said, "It was done for security reasons. Even the canine squad could not find anything suspicious. It does not happen everytime. All passengers cooperate and the staff are doing a good job. We do not have any bias against passengers. Nevertheless, we will try to take care of the issues raised."