Hyderabad, October 22, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday urged the Centre to arrange flights to bring back around 4,000 Indian pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia following flight cancellations.
In a post on X, Owaisi said the pilgrims were stuck in Makkah and Madina after flights operated by IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India were cancelled.
He urged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to grant the airlines permission to operate larger aircraft to facilitate the pilgrims’ return. If that was not possible, he called for special flights to be arranged.
Owaisi said many pilgrims had been left without assistance by their travel agents and called for urgent government intervention.
“This needs your urgent intervention; in the meanwhile, necessary support must be provided to the stranded pilgrims,” he said in his post, tagging Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
Indian Umrah pilgrims have been stranded in Saudi Arabia amid flight disruptions following attacks attributed to Yemen’s Houthi rebels on airports in the kingdom.
The security situation has also affected Indian nationals in Saudi Arabia. On October 11, a missile attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh reportedly killed 13 people and injured more than 300, including 11 Indians.
Mohammed Yousuf Ali, a 46-year-old technology professional from Hyderabad, was among those killed. He had been working in Riyadh for the past 10 years and had invited his wife, three children and an aunt to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.
The family was at Riyadh airport, waiting in the lounge to board a flight to Madina, when the airport was struck by a missile reportedly fired by the Houthis. Ali’s two sons were injured in the incident.
Shaik Saeed, 42, from Telangana’s Kamareddy district, who worked at a café at the airport, was also injured.
In a separate attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on the night of October 21, two people, including an Indian national and a Saudi citizen, were killed, while eight others were injured.
The latest incident has added to concerns over the safety of Indian nationals in Saudi Arabia and the difficulties faced by pilgrims seeking to return home.
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