‘Terror suspect’ regrets inconvenience caused to passengers

“I feel lucky that whatever had to happen, happened here. I can’t even imagine the harassment I would have had to face if I were in Dubai or London,” Shahbaz Khan told DNA on Monday.

Khan, 61, and his wife Munira, 50, were deplaned from a Mumbai-Dubai Emirates flight on Sunday morning after the airlines received a call claiming that Khan was a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative.

However, even 36 hours after the call grounded flight EK 505, with 356 people, including crew, for over four hours, the police are yet to trace the caller. It was earlier suspected that Aslam, Khan’s son from his first marriage, made the call as they were involved in a property dispute. On Monday, the police called Arif and his older brother Aslam for questioning in the case. Now the police suspect that Arif, 39, made the call.

In 2009, Arif was arrested by the MRA Marg police for forging documents to gain access to two buildings owned by Khan. There are around 11 non-cognisable offences registered against Arif and Khan.

Refusing to speak against his sons, Khan, who runs a private security agency, said that he most regretted the inconvenience the other passengers had to face. Recounting the incident, Khan told DNA:  “My wife and I completed the security procedures at about 9.15am and boarded the flight. At 9.55am, the plane started taxing and but suddenly stopped after 10 minutes. The captain said there was some technical problem and the flight was taken to the bay. We were in the plane till 11 am. I wanted to visit the restroom, but the crew asked me not to leave my seat.

“Around 11.30am, an Emirates staff member entered the plane and asked the crew who Shahbaz Khan was. My wife and I were asked to get off the flight. When we got off, we were surrounded by commandos. After that all the passengers were deplaned and were taken to the transit lounge.

“I really felt bad for those passengers who were screened again and had to go for security checks because of me. The security agencies should have taken me out of the plane rather than inconvenience other.

“The flight took off around 2.15pm. I was taken to the Foreign Registration Office (FRO). Officials from the IB, ATS, Special Branch-1(CID) and the CISF questioned me. The customs officials checked my bag. All of them gave me a clean chit and then I was taken to the police station around 5.30pm. The Sahar police took my statement at 10pm.”

Khan is now contemplating going to London. “My visa is going to expire on February 18 and I will file for renewal. If it is cleared then I will go abroad,” he said.