Mishap inside Mangaluru Airport claims life of CISF personnel Aslam Khan

A 53-year-old Indian worker in the UAE has missed a special repatriation flight after he dozed off at the Dubai International Airport, a media report said.

P Shajahan, who worked as a storekeeper in Abu Dhabi, was supposed to fly to Thiruvananthapuram on the Emirates jumbo jet chartered by the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) Dubai, Gulf News reported.

It was the first-ever jumbo jet chartered for repatriation.

Shajahan, who had paid 1,100 dirham (USD 300) for the ticket, said that he did not sleep on the previous night as he kept on waiting for the confirmation of his ticket for the jumbo jet flying 427 stranded Indians to Kerala, it said.

He reached the airport early in the morning and after finishing the check-in procedures and rapid test, he reached the waiting area of the boarding gate at Terminal 3 around 2 PM local time, the report said.

“I sat away from most of the others. But I fell asleep after 4.30 PM,” he said.

S Nizamudeen Kollam, who coordinated the charter flight, said that the airline officials could not trace Shajahan when the flight was to take off.

“He woke up and called us after the flight left. It is sad that he missed the flight, which was the first-ever jumbo jet chartered for repatriation. We are now trying to send him on another Emirates flight that we are chartering on Saturday,” Kollam said.

Since Shajahan did not have any money, Jasimkhan Kallambalam, organising secretary of KMCC Thiruvananthapuram, went to the airport to meet him on Friday.

“Since his visa was cancelled, he could not come out of the airport. He had only eaten the snacks in the kit KMCC had given. We managed to give him some cash for buying food through KMCC volunteer Alamsha Latheef,” Kallambalam said.

In March, another Indian expat had fallen asleep in the same terminal and missed the last flight home before flights were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was stranded here for over 50 days before getting repatriated.

Bidar, Mar 4: The Principal District and Sessions Court in Bidar, on Tuesday, granted conditional bail to five functionaries of Shaheen School management — Abdul Qadeer, Allauddin Pasha, Mehtab Sait, Bilal Inamdar and Abdul Khaleq — who moved anticipatory bail in a sedition case slapped against their school recently.

Conditions

Senior advocate B.T. Venkatesh from Bengaluru argued for the petitioners. Managoli Premavati Mallikarjuna granted bail on certain conditions, including execution of personal bond of ₹2 lakh each.

The sedition case was filed against the Shaheen School management for its children staging a play as part of their annual day celebrations on January 21, in which a character had allegedly delivered a dialogue against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While Nazbunnisa, the mother of the child who had allegedly delivered the dialogue in the play, and Fareeda Begum, the headmistress of the school, were arrested, they were subsequently released on bail last month.

Mangaluru, Mar 5: Chairman of Karnataka Christian Development Committee (CDC) Joylus DSouza on Thursday welcomed the allocation of a Rs 200-crore grant in the state budget for the development of the Christian community.

In his message to the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa released to the media, DSouza said, "Christians in Karnataka welcome with gratitude the announcement of Rs 200-crore allocation for the community in the budget for fiscal 2020-21."

In 2011-12 fiscal also, Yediyurappa as Chief Minister had allocated a grant of Rs 50 crore for the community for the first time in the history of the state, he said.

The grant of Rs 200 crore this year shows Yediyurappas concern for the Christians.

I congratulate and offer my sincere gratitude on behalf of the Christian community of the state to Yediyurappa, DSouza said.