Arrange special flights to bring back Umrah pilgrims: Owaisi urges Centre

Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday (October 22, 2026) requested the Union government to arrange special aircrafts to bring back around 4,000 Umrah pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia amidst the ongoing attacks on aviation infrastructure in that country.

Speaking to the media, Mr. Owaisi, who is the president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) underscored that the pilgrims are stranded in Medina, Mecca and Jeddah, and alleged that travel agents had abandoned them without assistance.

The pilgrims had travelled by means of Indigo, Akasa Air and Air India, and faced considerable inconvenience, he highlighted.

Mr. Owaisi said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) did not grant permission to IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India to operate flights to Jeddah.

He said some of the pilgrims were staying at the Hyderabad Rubaath and called on Union External Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu to take note of the situation.

“The situation there is changing,” he said, urging the government to press special aircraft into service to bring the pilgrims home.

The AIMIM chief said many of the stranded pilgrims were from economically weaker backgrounds and could not afford to purchase fresh tickets on Saudi Arabian airlines to return to India.

In the recent past, a Hyderabadi man, identified as Mohammed Yousuf, was killed in an attack at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, while his two sons sustained injuries, one of whom required knee surgery.

Travel agents told The Hindu, that they were dealing with emergencies with either closure of airports or flights — except Saudi Airlines — between India and Saudi Arabia. “In a unique case, a family who was on umrah had decided to leave for Hyderabad, on a carrier other than Saudia, on the 85th day of the 90 day umrah visa validity. That way, they can stay for as long as they could. This was a few days ago,” Akram Baramzan from Imperial Travel Services said. Explaining the limited options left, he explained, ”Now an option is to obtain a Bahrain visa and then fly from there, as the Saudi visa would expire. Overstaying can have consequences,” adding that it would take a few days to obtain the Bahrain visa.