shashikant
BANNED
- May 10, 2014
- 242
- -1
- Country
- Location
Young, single Muslim males from India barred from visiting Iraq - TOI Mobile | The Times of India Mobile Site
MUMBAI: Are you single, male,
Muslim and under 30? If yes, then
you should not apply for a
pilgrimage visa to strife-torn Iraq.
Alshaya Nasser Travels, one of the
two Iraqi government-organized
agencies (the other is Faiz-e-
Hussaini) that facilitate visa
processing, has asked tour operators
not to accept passports from
applicants who are single, under 30
and unaccompanied by family
members. The advisory comes after
four Kalyan youths, all single and
under 30, used the pilgrimage route
to travel to Iraq in May and join the
jihadist outfit ISIS there.
The ministry of external affairs has
said that it has not issued any such
instructions to the tour operators.
On May 23, the four—Arif Majeed,
Fahad Shaikh, Aman Tandel and
Shahim Tanki—part of a group of 26
pilgrims, flew to Baghdad to visit
holy shrines. A few days later, they
disappeared and joined the ISIS.
One of them, Arif Majeed, has
returned and is currently being
interrogated by the National
Investigation Agency. "Had we put
this condition earlier, the four
Kalyan boys who used pilgrimage as
a path to join the jihadist group
could have been prevented. This is
in the interest of tour operators, too,
as disappearance of pilgrims during
travel causes trouble for them as
well. This will discourage those boys
who are similarly influenced by
jihadist ideology and may be
planning to join the so-called holy
war in future," said an executive of
Alshaya Nasser Travels.
MUMBAI: Are you single, male,
Muslim and under 30? If yes, then
you should not apply for a
pilgrimage visa to strife-torn Iraq.
Alshaya Nasser Travels, one of the
two Iraqi government-organized
agencies (the other is Faiz-e-
Hussaini) that facilitate visa
processing, has asked tour operators
not to accept passports from
applicants who are single, under 30
and unaccompanied by family
members. The advisory comes after
four Kalyan youths, all single and
under 30, used the pilgrimage route
to travel to Iraq in May and join the
jihadist outfit ISIS there.
The ministry of external affairs has
said that it has not issued any such
instructions to the tour operators.
On May 23, the four—Arif Majeed,
Fahad Shaikh, Aman Tandel and
Shahim Tanki—part of a group of 26
pilgrims, flew to Baghdad to visit
holy shrines. A few days later, they
disappeared and joined the ISIS.
One of them, Arif Majeed, has
returned and is currently being
interrogated by the National
Investigation Agency. "Had we put
this condition earlier, the four
Kalyan boys who used pilgrimage as
a path to join the jihadist group
could have been prevented. This is
in the interest of tour operators, too,
as disappearance of pilgrims during
travel causes trouble for them as
well. This will discourage those boys
who are similarly influenced by
jihadist ideology and may be
planning to join the so-called holy
war in future," said an executive of
Alshaya Nasser Travels.
