Was detained Kurdistan-bound Indian worker a victim of misguided paranoia?

New Delhi: Four days after 31-year-old Mohammad Mukhtar Alam from Bihar was scheduled to take a Qatar Airways flight from Delhi to return to his job as a crane-operator in the northern Iraqi state of Kurdistan, he is still in India, barred from leaving the country for a week. Alam was detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday morning (14 September) following an anonymous phone call alleging that a passenger with links to a terror group was on board a flight to Iraq. Alam was released later that day after the police found no evidence against him linking him to any terrorist organisation. [caption id=“attachment_1719283” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] Asked about what the airport police had to say about why Alam had been detained, Alam’s brother Meraj, speaking to Firstpost said, “They said that they had received a call alerting them to someone by the name of Mustaq who was travelling on an Oman Air flight that was scheduled to depart between 6 am and 7 am. But neither the name of my brother (Mukhtar Alam) nor the flight details matched. My brother was booked on a Qatar Airways flight which was scheduled to depart at 9 am. Also, the district mentioned by the caller was Begusarai. And we are from Nawada. None of the details tallied. It could have been settled in matter of minutes. There was no reason to detain my brother for so long.” Erbil, where Alam is employed, is the capital of oil-rich Kurdish Autonomous Region (KRG) which has so far remained outside the grip of and, now with US military assistance, resisting the onslaught of the Islamic State, the Sunni militant group that has taken control of many parts of Iraq. Commenting on the police’s handling of the case, Zafar-Islam Khan, president of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an umbrella body of Muslim organisations, said, “The police should have applied their mind. He is not working in Iraq proper but in Kurdistan, which is at war with the organisation he is accused of having links with. And he has been working there much before IS took shape. If the police doesn’t give him something in writing (clearing his name), he will face the same problem again and again.” Khan also underlined the need for the police to track down the crank caller. “It is very important that they trace the anonymous call. That is just as important as the other aspects of the investigation,” he said. Meanwhile, the news of Alam’s detention hasn’t gone down too well with his employers in Kurdistan who have asked Alam to furnish a No Objection Certificate (NOC) on his return, subject to which he will be allowed to re-join. “The news of Alam’s detention has been published in newspapers in Kurdistan and his company has now said that it will take him back only if he is submits a No Objection Certificate from the government. When we asked the police for, they said we should apply for it. But it was the police who wrongly detained him and after a thorough investigation his name has been fully cleared. Shouldn’t they at least give us a police clearance report?” Meraj said. Alam’s family in Bihar, said Meraj, was dependent on his job in Kurdistan. “He has a very good job. He is a crane operator. Our family’s sustenance depends on his income. He gets a salary of Rs 1 lakh. He has been working in Erbil since 2011. This was his seventh trip back,” he said. The main concern for the family now, said Meraj, was that the police issue an NOC clearing Alam’s name. “They should give us a certificate. Otherwise, we can be questioned any time. Once we get the NOC and the flight ticket, we will be relieved,” Meraj said.