What is wrong if Azam is frisked, asks UP minister

Taking a different stand from his party, Uttar Pradesh minister Devender Gupta today said there was nothing wrong if his cabinet colleague Azam Khan was frisked at a US airport.

Taking a different stand from his party, Uttar Pradesh minister Devender Gupta on Saturday said there was nothing wrong if his cabinet colleague Azam Khan was frisked at a US airport.

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The UP minister for solar energy said that even former president APJ Abdul Kalam was frisked last year and bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was detained for over two hours at a New York airport.

"Who is Azam in front of them," asked Gupta. He was here to attend a meeting of traders on Saturday afternoon.

Frisking at airports was a practice exercised to ensure safety in the US, and as per their rules, Azam was rightly subjected to it, he said.

Azam, a senior leader of the ruling SP in UP and also the Urban Development minister of the state, was detained for about 10 minutes at the Boston airport for "further questioning" after he landed in a scheduled British Airways flight from India.

"The US should be told that such discriminatory actions would henceforth not be tolerated," a spokesman of the party said.