Jeddah airport officials deport Haj pilgrim for 'passport forgery'

Mumbai: A Haj pilgrim from Maharashtra was deported from Jeddah airport because of an overwriting on the expiry date of his passport that the Saudi immigration officials deemed "a case of forgery". Though Nagpur's Regional Passport Office said the passport holder was not at fault as the overwriting was done by a clerk who interred the information, the pilgrim is likely to miss this year's Haj.
Haj will be performed in the second week of this month. Parbhani resident Shaikh Shaukat Ali (42) and his mother Sahebun Nisa Begum (76) boarded a flight to Jeddah from Aurangabad on September 29. Though immigration officers at Aurangabad airport cleared him, officers at Jeddah airport detained him, saying his passport was forged. Since Ali's passport had been issued in 1997 for 20 years, its validity ended in 2017. But the clerk overwrote the date of expiry, making it appear as if 2007 had been changed to 2017. Though Ali's mother's passport was valid, she too had to return with her son as she has to be accompanied by a male family member during Haj.
Read news in full 02/10/13 Mohammed Wajihuddin/Times of India