Usmane Ghani, an Indian doctor from this city working in a military
hospital at Riyadh, has been detained by the Saudi Arabian police at the
behest of the Indian government, alleged his grieving mother Fathima
Khan here Friday.
"I got a call from his wife Rashida Oct 8 that
my son was picked up by the Saudi police from home without giving any
reason and he has been under detention since then," the 55-year-old
Fathima told IANS here.
Ghani, 36, went to Saudi Arabia in late
2008 to join the National Guard hospital at Riyadh as an anaesthetist
after working three years at St John's Hospital and three months at
Apollo Hospital in Bangalore. He also worked earlier at Seventh Day
Adventist Hospital at Ottapalam in Kerala for 10 months.
Rashida joined Ghani a couple of months later when she got a visa and the couple have been living in Riyadh since then.
"Though
I have written to the Indian embassy to help us know Ghani's
whereabouts and on what charges he was detained, there has been no
response so far," Fathima said.
Efforts by Rashida to find out from the Saudi government where her husband had been kept also did not yield result.
"We
have no information about Ghani's whereabouts. Only once Ghani called
Rashida a week ago and spoke a few sentences. He did not tell where and
how he was but told her to do daily namaz (prayers) and not to worry,"
Fathima said in choked voice, recalling her recent conversation with her
daughter-in-law.
Bangalore police, however, denied having any information about Ghani's detention in Saudi Arabia.
"We
have no information about his detention in Saudi Arabia. We can't
comment on what his mother (Fathima) is alleging or claiming. You have
to find out from the authorities concerned," Joint Commissioner of
Police (Crime) B. Dayanand told IANS.
Fathima and her younger son
Mustafa Khan, a hardware engineer working at a private firm in
Bangalore, are shocked at the "silence" of the Indian government and the
indifference of its embassy in providing consular access to Ghani
though the news about his detention was telecast on a Saudi channel the
whole day (Oct 8).
She noted that the state police had summoned
her son in early 2008 when he was in Bangalore after some youth were
picked up in Hubli, about 410 km from Bangalore, for allegedly planning a
terror attack and was questioned.
"Police had threatened Ghani
of ruining his career if he did not cooperate with the state
intelligence agencies. As there was no evidence of his involvement in
any anti-national activity, he was cleared and allowed to go to Saudi
Arabia," Fathima said.
Accusing the authorities of framing her
"innocent" son without proof, she said her family was being harassed as
even her second son (Mustafa) was not spared by the police in
questioning about the terror plans though he had no connection with such
elements.
"We live in constant fear of being summoned or
questioned by police as we are under surveillance since a fortnight. I
am worried about Ghani's safety and welfare of his wife though they have
no children yet," Fathima noted.
Association for Protection of
Civil Rights (APCR) coordinator Irshad Ahmed said the family would soon
file a habeas corpus petition in the Karnataka High Court if the Indian
government did not act to find out Ghani's whereabouts and reasons for
his detention.
"We are waiting for a response from the Indian
embassy or the Saudi government on Ghani's fate and what was the crime
for his being suddenly picked up from his house in Riyadh," Ahmed told
IANS.
A desperate Fathima made a fervent appeal to the Indian
government to provide consular access to Ghani, arrange a lawyer to
represent him in Saudi Arabia, disclose reasons for his detention and
provide her a visa to meet her son in the kingdom.
Indian doctor detained in Saudi Arabia
