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Now, another top Indian envoy frisked in US

New York/New Delhi, Dec 13
One of India’s top most diplomats, Hardeep Puri, Ambassador to the United Nations, was asked to remove his turban during an airport ‘pat-down’ search in the US in yet another incident of Indian envoys being subjected to humiliating process. India has lodged a strong protest following the incident.

Close on the heels of Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar being subjected to a 'pat-down' search earlier this month, Puri, the country's permanent representative to the UN, was asked by airport officials to remove his turban during a security check at Houston Airport two weeks ago, sources said.

When Puri refused to remove his turban, the officials made him wait for over 30 minutes in a 'holding room'. The matter was resolved only after a Transportation Security Administration official accompanying Puri intervened.

India has lodged an official protest with the US authorities through its Consulate General in Houston, sources in New Delhi said. “I have taken it up with the US authorities and the matter is at that stage. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also give an indication to the fact that they have to revisit some of these procedures, particularly with reference to diplomatic cover of other countries,” External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said in New Delhi when asked about these searches. On December 4, Meera Shankar was pulled out from an airport security line and patted down by an American security agent in Mississippi despite informing them of her diplomatic status. She was subjected to an enhanced security pat-down at the Jackson-Evers International Airport in Mississippi, ostensibly because she was dressed in a sari. — PTI