Owaisi Seeks Help for 4,000 Stranded Indian Pilgrims

Asaduddin Owaisi has urged India’s government to arrange the return of about 4,000 Indian Umrah pilgrims he says are stranded in Saudi Arabia, proposing larger aircraft or special flights as options. The estimate and account of the pilgrims’ circumstances come from Owaisi and have not been independently confirmed in the reports reviewed. The Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief said the pilgrims were in Makkah and Madinah; another account of his appeal also named Jeddah. He said flight cancellations had disrupted their return journeys and that travel agents had abandoned them. The reports do not provide an official count of people stranded or an independently verified account of the agents’ support. Owaisi called on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to allow airlines to use larger aircraft to bring the pilgrims back to India. He named IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India in his appeal. If the DGCA does not permit that option, he said, the government should arrange special flights. The reports do not establish that either measure has been approved or put into operation. He also sought intervention from External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Minority Affairs Minister Kiren...