About 4,000 Indian pilgrims are stuck in Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia, Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said on X on Thursday. He said they had flown with IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India, which have since cancelled their flights.
What Owaisi asked for
- Permission for airlines to fly the pilgrims home
- DGCA approval for larger aircraft, or special flights if that is not possible
- Immediate help for pilgrims he said were abandoned by travel agents
He tagged Union ministers Kiren Rijiju and S. Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
Why flights stopped
Flights were cancelled after Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked Saudi airports. On October 11, a missile hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing 13 people and injuring over 300, including 11 Indians. Hyderabad techie Mohammed Yousuf Ali, 46, was among those killed. An attack on Dammam airport on the night of October 21 killed two people, one of them Indian.
No response from the Centre or the Ministry of External Affairs to Owaisi's appeal had been reported at the time of writing.
