Omar Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, was subjected to a “secondary immigration check” upon his arrival in the U.S. due to which he had to spend two hours at the airport. “Another random secondary immigration check upon landing in the U.S. Thrice in three visits, the randomness is growing tiresome now,” Abdullah tweeted.
In another tweet he said, “I just spent TWO hours in a holding area & this happens EVERY time. Unlike @iamsrk I don’t even catch Pokémon to pass the time,” a reference to actor Shah Rukh Khan, who was “detained” in August at the Los Angeles airport, the third time in seven years that he had been stopped by U.S. immigration officials at the country’s airports.
Khan, too, had tweeted that while he fully understood and respected security protocols, “to be detained at U.S. immigration every damn time really really sucks.”
Abdullah said he is in the U.S. to speak at an event at New York University “but almost wish stayed at home instead. Ah well, that’s two hours well & truly wasted!!” he said.
He is scheduled to speak at the event organized by the students of New York University on Oct. 21, which is expected to be attended by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy.
In August, the US had apologized to Shah Rukh Khan, 50, who had tweeted after yet another detention at a US airport: “Every damn time”. The actor has been held back at the New York and New Jersey airports before, because a man with the same name is on a US no-fly list of 80,000 people.
