|
According to media reports, Tejindar Singh Kahlon, 65, a Sikh US-based NRI has filed a US$60 million civil rights law suit for being barred from boarding an airplane twice last year because he refused to remove his turban for a security check. The incidents took place on October 25 and 26 of 2001, nearly six weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Kahlon was born in Pakistan and has been a US citizen for about 30 years. He lives in East Meadow in Long Island, New York, had contended his religion forbade him from removing his turban for a security check.
The report noted that Kahlon filed the suit on October 22, 2002 in the US district court in Central Islip against the Town of Islip, which operates the airport; the Southwest Airlines from where he had got his ticket; and the security firm International Total Services, responsible for safety of the passengers.
The suit said airport security officials refused to search him with a metal detector or by touching his turban while it was on his head, said a report in Newsday, a daily published from New York City.
Sikhs consider removing their turban in public the equivalent of going naked, and the US Department of Transportation said requiring Kahlon to do so was a violation of federal anti-discrimination statutes, the paper quoted Kahlon's attorney Thomas Liotti of Garden City as saying.
The report indicated that Kahlon, an attorney who is a hearing officer at Nassau County Family Court, was planning to take a Southwest flight to attend the wedding of a friend's daughter last October 25 when he was asked to step off a line of passengers for a turban search, Liotti said.
- nriol.com report
more snippets...
We appreciate your feedback, please write to us at: feedback@nriol.com
|
