Indian diplomat "patted-down" in US airport

New Delhi, Dec 9: India has expressed its anger following the frisking of Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar in the Jackson-Evers International Airport. SM Krishna, External Affairs Minister has said that the matter will be looked into seriously. The Ministry in a statement said that they would take the matter up with the US State Department for the manner in which the diplomat was treated.

Meera Shankar was apparently pulled up from the airport security line and patted down by the American security agents. Despite stating that she enjoys diplomatic immunity from such searches, she was pulled up for apparently wearing a sari.

She was on her way to Baltimore after attending a programme at the Mississippi State University, according to the Clarion-Ledger maintained at the airport. Since this particular airport lacked the full-body scanner like most other airports, she was subject to this embarassing pat-down. Witnesses claim that she was singled out for wearing a “a traditional Indian robe that is draped across the body".

New TSA regulations in US subjects travellers to go through “pat-downs" by federal security officers at airports for passengers who require hand searches which is applicable from Nov 1.

OneIndia News