Direct Indian missions in Middle East to run background checks

The National Commission for Minorities today urged the Centre to instruct Indian missions in the Middle East to "strictly" run background checks on Sheikhs travelling to India in view of a complaint about trafficking of local Muslim women under the garb of marriage.
NCM Chairman Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi also demanded that authorities be directed to crack the whip on a nexus of brokers, Qazis and hotel owners involved in such cases and arrest them for "outraging the modesty of innocent Indian Muslim girls on the pretext of marriage".
"The NCM is of the view that the Ministry of External Affairs may instruct all the Indian missions in Middle Eastern countries to strictly verify and scrutinise the background of these Sheikhs, especially aged 50 and above, before issuing visa to them," Rizvi said in a letter to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

He alleged the agents lure Muslim women from poor families into contract marriages with Sheikhs from Oman, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries.
A nexus of brokers, Qazis, hotel owners and Sheikhs is operating in Hyderabad and other parts of the country, Rizvi alleged.
Referring to a recent report about the arrest of eight Sheikhs in a similar case, the NCM chairman said such women are either abandoned here or forced to work as servants in the home countries of the foreigners.

In many cases, Muslims girls were also trafficked and fake passports were generated to conceal their identities, he said.

"There is also a need to check whether foreigners stick to their stated purpose while travelling to India," Rizvi told PTI.
In a separate letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the NCM chairman urged him to expeditiously examine the matter and instruct the agencies concerned to deal with such elements with a heavy hand.