Shia leader Aga Hassan stopped from boarding Delhi-Tehran flight for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei funeral, his son claims

Summary

Prominent Shia leader and Hurriyat Conference executive member Aga Syed Hassan Musavi was stopped from boarding a flight to Iran on Thursday by officials in New Delhi, his son claimed. Aga Hassan had been invited to Tehran to attend the funeral of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . “He (Aga Hassan) was stopped by immigration officials in Delhi. They told him that he would be allowed to go only on the condition that he does not say anything against India’s official stance or talks about the arrests made in Kashmir,” Hassan’s son Aga Muntazir Mehdi, a PDP MLA, told The Indian Express . “He told them that he was going only to attend the funeral and that he was not going to deliver a speech. However, he refused to agree to their condition,” Muntazir claimed. Muntazir further claimed that immigration officials then seized Hassan’s passport and sent a seizure memo to the Regional Passport Officer (RPO) in Srinagar. The seizure memo, issued by Ajay Singh of the Bureau of Immigration at Indira Gandhi International Airport, said, “The passport/Travel document… issued at Srinagar in the name of Aga Syed Hassan Mosvi is seized and sent to RPO Srinagar for necessary action…” Hassan was one of five leaders from Jammu and Kashmir invited to Tehran to attend the funeral of the Ayatollah Khamenei. The others were prominent Shia leader and MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, Shia leaders Imran Ansari and Syed Hadi, and former chief minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti. Mufti and Ansari were allowed to board the special plane sent by the Iranian government to take invited guests from India to Tehran. Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir.