Fear and uncertainty has gripped the USA-bound citizens from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as the American authorities were continuing to send back groups after groups on one pretext or the other and the shocking tales of humiliating experiences at the American airport has turned the dreams of aspiring students into nightmare.
In a fresh episode, 22 students from the two Telugu States were detained soon after landing at the New York International airport and detained for 20 hours for questioning. Their ordeal did not end there and they continued to suffer humiliation even after they landed back at Hyderabad’s International Airport on Sunday as Indian authorities also kept them in detention for eight hours.
Their ordeal ended only after the providential intervention by Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali who happened to be passing through the airport on his return from Srinagar.
On spotting hungry and tired student in a hold up area and on inquiring from the onlookers, he came to know about the suffering of the students who could not get even a drop of drinking water for 8 hours.
Mahmood Ali immediately spoke to the Immigration Authorities and asked them to let the students go. “They are not criminalsIJ Why are they being made to suffer even after returning home for no fault of theirsIJ” he asked the officials.