Former legislator and National Conference leader Altaf Ahmad Kaloo was deboarded from a Delhi-Dubai flight on Thursday and was detained for four hours at Delhi airport, the former legislator told Outlook.
NC leader Altaf Ahmad Kaloo claims he was barred from flying to Dubai
Former legislator and National Conference leader Altaf Ahmad Kaloo was deboarded from a Delhi-Dubai flight on Thursday and was detained for four hours at Delhi airport, the former legislator told Outlook.
Kaloo claimed that just before the flight was scheduled to depart from Delhi airport around 8pm, he was stopped by emigration authorities. Kaloo claimed that the authorities informed him that politicians from J&K have been barred from travelling outside the country and that the ban continues till March 2021.
The National Conference legislator was scheduled to attend a family event in Dubai. He said subsequently he was detained for around four hours at the airport. "I was released after I had to make many calls, and had to inform people why I was being detained and wasn’t being allowed to travel," he added.
He said since his luggage was already onboard, it had reached Dubai and he was left without his bags. "After I was released by the authorities I had to buy some clothes for myself,” Kaloo said.
"Don't know why they detained me and barred me from travelling. It was so frustrating and depressing," he said.
In a similar incident, last year on August 15, amid clampdown in J&K following the revocation of the region’s special status, Shah Faesal, the Kashmiri IAS officer turned politician, was prevented from boarding a flight from Delhi to Istanbul. He was later taken to Srinagar and was placed under house arrest under Section 107 of the CrPC and was subsequently booked under the Public Safety Act.