Mangaluru: The members of Kerala State Muslim Youth League held protest on Wednesday against airport officials for harassing passengers from Kasargod district.
The protest was carried out in front of Mangaluru International airport. A K M Ashraf, president of the association said that those officials who unnecessarily harass the passengers should be replaced.
Further he said, “the passengers from Kasargod and other districts of Kerala are dependent on Mangaluru airport. But the airport authorities frequently ill-treat and humiliate the passengers. They take the passengers for a ride on the pretext of interrogation and detain them for no reason,” he alleged.
“Even though we have brought this issue to the notice of civil aviation minister and the chief minister of Kerala, there has been no action regarding the same,” he said.
“We had informed airport director J T Radhakrishna but he has rejected any such cases of officials harrassing passengers. A person named Abdul Khader from Kasargod who was travelling to Dubai was harrassed by the officials recently. The officials had confiscated a iPod which he had bought for his child saying that it had bomb inside. When the news spread, media persons and the police visited his house. But the forensic report from Delhi revealed that the iPod had nothing inside it. The officials apologised and freed the passenger. They have caused damage to the passenger’s reputation who is an ordinary person working to look after his family.” he said.
Another passenger from Kerala, Mohammed Azaruddin, a Ranji player while travelling to Doha was also harrassed for hours by the immigration officers. He was harrassed by the officials who claimed that he had a fake visa. But later he was allowed to travel with just an apology, he alleged.
“We do not oppose checking by the officials but unnecessary harrassment of the passengers is condemnable,” he said.
P B Abdul Razak, MLA of Manjeshwar too alleged that he too had come across such cases of harrassment by officials and demanded a immediate solution.
