Kashmiri girl held, freed hours later

Return journey for a Kashmiri girl, a medical student in Bangladesh, turned horrible as she was detained at the Indira Gandhi Airport on Friday after security staff saw “carrying bomb” written on her check-in luggage.

The girl, a resident of Rajbagh in Srinagar city, was taken for questioning after the security staff at the airport informed the police. She was travelling from Dhaka to Delhi via Kolkata.

Officials said the incident took place when the girl and her three friends, bound for Srinagar, landed at the airport from Dhaka via Kolkata about 11 am.

She was questioned while security agencies carried out background check at Bangladesh and Srinagar. The girl was released after everything was found in order by the police, the officials said.

The incident was flagged by former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah who took to Twitter and sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh in this regard. “@HMOIndia @PMOIndia kindly look into the matter of the detention of two Kashmiri girls at Delhi airport. Their parents are very concerned.

“@HMOIndia @PMOIndia Any assistance and information will be greatly appreciated by their families & loved ones. Thank you in anticipation,” Omar tweeted.

“@HMOIndia @PMOIndia The grounds, as explained to me seem rather flimsy given that they flew from Dhaka to Delhi via Kolkata & then detained,” he said in another tweet. The home minister promptly responded with the tweet “@abdullah_omar please send the details to pstohm@nic.in.”

Bilal Ahmad, the father of one of the girls, said that he attempted to seek the help of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, but was refused an audience with her.