Five high-profile Sikhs subjected to security practices at airports

Brampton comedian Jasmeet Singh, better known to his over 600,000 followers on YouTube as “Jus Reign,” shared his story of being forced to remove his turban during an airport check at San Francisco-area airport on social media this weekend.

It happened just weeks after Sikh movie star Waris Ahluwalia was banned from boarding a flight from Mexico to New York when he refused to remove his turban during a security check.

But these two instances are far from rare.

Here are five other instances of high-profile Sikh men and woman were subjected to questionable security practices at airports:

1. Nov. 2010 – India’s United Nations envoy Hardeep Puri was detained in Houston for refusing to remove his turban in public at airport security. He was then taken to a ‘holding room’ where he was detained for more than 30 minutes. The incident caused increased tension between U.S. and India.
2. Dec. 2010 – Meena Shankar, India’s ambassador to United States was frisked by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), allegedly because she was wearing a sari. Proper procedure was not followed during the “pat down” at an airport in Baltimore and Hilary Clinton, who was the US Secretary of State at the time, was forced to apologize on behalf of the U.S.
3. April, 2009 – 80-year-old former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam was pulled from an airport security line and frisked by a security agent in Mississippi – even after her diplomatic status had been revealed. Two years later he was frisked and had both his jacket and shoes taken away by security while on board an Air India flight at JFK airport. Some said he was singled out because he was wearing a sari. The United States government apologized for both instances.
4. Nov. 2001– Surjit Babra, president of the $100 million portfolio SkyLink, was forced to remove his turban before flight from LaGuardia airport to Toronto.
5. Oct. 2013 – Daman Deep Singh, who was a member of the TSA’s Pre Check Program, was subject to a wrongful secondary screening in Dallas – Fort Worth. Because of this incident, the TSA instituted a nation-wide re-training program for its officers regarding screening of turbaned Sikh passengers in the Pre Check Program.