Hindu woman wearing burqa causes security scare at Delhi’s IGI airport

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel stopped a woman in a burqa when she entered Terminal 3 of Delhi airport. The security staff got suspicious because she had a Hindu name

A Hindu woman in a burqa travelling with a Muslim man living in Jeddah raised an alarm at the Delhi airport on Monday, officials said.

The woman told CISF that she was travelling with a 43-year-old Muslim man from Madhya Pradesh in central India. (Ajay Aggarwal/HT Photo)

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel stopped the woman when she entered Terminal 3 of Delhi airport. The security staff got suspicious as “her Muslim attire did not match with her Hindu name given on the flight ticket”.

The CISF also alerted the Intelligence Bureau.

“The incident took place on morning of September 25. At 7:15 am, our intelligence staff noticed the suspicious movement of a burqa-clad woman. During enquiry, it was found that the woman was a 26-year-old Hindu and travelling to Mumbai by Jet airways flight 9W 358. The plane was scheduled to fly at 10:30 am,” said a CISF official.

During the enquiry, the woman said that she was travelling with a 43-year-old Muslim man, who is from Madhya Pradesh.

They were allowed to travel after nothing suspicious was found in their possession.

In a similar incident reported in August, a young woman “eloping” with her boyfriend, with her mother hot on their heels, created a security scare at the Delhi airport on August 15.

The drama unfolded when an alert security officer noticed a non-Muslim name on the boarding card of a burqa-clad woman during the security check.

The mismatch caused an alarm as the Indira Gandhi International Airport was on high alert in view of the Independence Day. The officer quickly alerted her seniors about the “suspicious” woman.

Later, they came to know that the woman wore a burqa to hide from her mother.