(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Students who returned from Bangladesh at Srinagar airport
Srinagar: Two Kashmiri students returning from Bangladesh walked out of the Srinagar International Airport on Thursday morning without undergoing the mandatory screening for the Covid-19 infection, courtesy their 'influential parents'.
According to reports, two female MBBS students enrolled at Dhaka Medical College arrived with 30 other students at the Srinagar International Airport in an early morning Indigo flight from Kolkata. All the students were kept at the arrival lounge with 250 other travellers who had flown in from different parts of the country.
'While we were speculating administration's next move, an airport official signaled two girl students to follow him. The official took them out of the airport through VIP exit,' a student, who witnessed the scene, told Kashmir Observer.
She identified the girl students as daughters of two senior government officials.
Students reached Kolkata two days ago at and were screened properly at the airport there. In Delhi too, she said the airport officials screened the students before allowing them to board Srinagar bound flight.
'But when we landed at the Srinagar Airport, we were detained by officials and kept with other passengers who had arrived from different countries in other flights,' she said.
'We were kept like animals at the airport lounge. We could not even breathe properly since it was overcrowded,' she added.
Dr Iqra, who had come to the airport to receive her sister was furious. She told Kashmir Observer that display of power and arrogance by the VIPs could further exacerbate the situation.
'This can only happen in Kashmir. Influential persons take out their kin from the airport by throwing all the rules to the wind. What if these students turn out to be coronavirus positive,' she asked.
'These VIP's should understand that they are not only playing with themselves but with the whole community by putting everyone at risk,' she added.
SSP, Budgam Amod Nagpuri denied the report that any student was taken out of the airport by their parents without undergoing mandatory screening.
'We have received no such report,' Nagpuri added.
Authoritative sources told this newspaper that the all the Bangladesh returned Kashmiri students are likely to be shifted either to a BSF hospital or a hotel in Parraypora, in the city outskirts for quarantine.
Meanwhile, police used mild force after the students protested at the airport against the non-availability of food and washrooms.
Pertinently, the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory administration is facing sharp criticism after four foreigners, including an Italian couple arrived in Kashmir on Wednesday despite a ban. The anger was further fueled after a woman from the Old City here tested positive to coronavirus infection on Wednesday.
The people allege that the authorities were not doing enough to screen the travellers at the airport.
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