NEW DELHI: India has sought consular access to 12 persons taken off a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Mumbai at the Amsterdam airport by Dutch authorities on Wednesday, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said on Thursday.

Mr. Sharma told The Hindu that till Thursday evening consular access to the detainees had not been granted to Indian Embassy officials at The Hague in the Netherlands. However, the names provided to the Indian side indicate that these men were of South Asian origin.

The names of those detained have been given as: Sohail Abdul Aziz Nizami, Ayub Qadir, Sajid Qadir, Yusuf Haji Ghaffar Memon, Nur Mohammed Batliwala, Shakeel Usman Chotani, Ayub Khan, Ehsan Farooqi, Ghulam Mustafa, Mohammed Yusuf, Mohammed Imran and Mohammed Iqbal Batliwala.

Agency reports quoting Dutch authorities said the detained persons were Indian nationals. However, Dutch Justice Minister Pier Hein Donner said the detentions did not appear to be "terror-related."

Till Indian embassy officials were granted consular access and were able to establish their nationality, they cannot be officially deemed to be Indian nationals. According to Mr. Sharma, the 12 persons had been detained for `flight disruption.'

Asked if the detention of these 12 persons with "Muslim" names was a case of over-reaction given the scare of terrorist attacks after the London arrests, Mr. Sharma responded, "Let the facts emerge."

Confirming that the detained persons appeared to be of Indian origin, the Minister of State said the 12 men had not been formally charged with any particular offence. More than 24 hours after the Northwest Airlines plane was escorted to land at the Amsterdam airport, details of the incident appear to be sketchy.

Last week, two British Asian students from Manchester — Sohail Ashraf and Khurram Zeb — were ejected from a Monarch Airlines flight in Malaga, Spain, because some co-passengers felt they were "terrorists." Neither of them was carrying any hand luggage, The Guardian reported.

PTI adds:

Relatives of two of the 12 passengers said they were ready to face the Dutch police inquiry.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail