Owaisi urges Centre to fly back 4,000 stranded Umrah pilgrims from Saudi Arabia
Synopsis
With 4,000 Indian Umrah pilgrims marooned in Makkah and Madina after Houthi missile strikes forced IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India to suspend Saudi operations, AIMIM's Owaisi has taken the crisis to the doorstep of four Union ministers — demanding an emergency airlift. A Hyderabad techie is already dead; two airports hit in eleven days. The clock is ticking for the Centre.
Key Takeaways
AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on 22 October urged the Centre to arrange repatriation flights for 4,000 Indian pilgrims stranded in Makkah and Madina .
Flights by IndiGo , Akasa Air , and Air India have been cancelled following Houthi missile attacks on Saudi airports.
A Riyadh airport missile strike on 11 October killed 13 people , including Hyderabad techie Mohammed Yousuf Ali, 46 , and injured more than 300 , of whom 11 were Indians .
A second attack on Dammam airport on 21 October killed 2 — including one Indian — and injured 8 .
Owaisi tagged ministers Kiren Rijiju , S.
Ram Mohan Naidu , and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri , demanding urgent government intervention.
AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday, 22 October called on the Centre to immediately intervene and arrange flights to repatriate approximately 4,000 Indian pilgrims stranded in Makkah and Madina, Saudi Arabia, after airlines suspended operations in the kingdom following a series of Houthi missile strikes on Saudi airports.
What Owaisi Demanded
In a post on X, the Hyderabad Member of Parliament urged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to grant IndiGo, Akasa Air, and Air India — the carriers that flew the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia — permission to deploy larger aircraft for repatriation flights. He also called for the arrangement of special dedicated flights if the airlines cannot resume operations on their own.
Owaisi tagged Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in his post, urging 'urgent intervention.' He also flagged that stranded pilgrims had been 'abandoned by their travel agents' and said necessary support must be provided to them in the interim.
Why Pilgrims Are Stranded
The flight cancellations stem from Houthi rebel attacks on airports across Saudi Arabia. On 11 October, a missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing 13 people — including a pilgrim from Hyderabad — and injuring more than 300 others, among them 11 Indians.
The most recent strike hit Dammam airport on the night of 21 October, killing two people — a Saudi national and an Indian — and injuring eight others. The back-to-back attacks have prompted carriers to halt flights, leaving thousands of Umrah pilgrims unable to return home.
Hyderabad Victims: A Family Torn Apart
Mohammed Yousuf Ali, 46, a technology professional from Hyderabad who had been employed in Riyadh for 10 years, was killed in the 11 October Riyadh airport attack. He had arranged the trip to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, bringing along his wife, three children, and an aunt. His two sons were injured in the same strike. The family was in the airport lounge, waiting to board a flight to Madina, when the missile hit.
Also injured in the attack was Shaik Saeed, 42, from Kamareddy district in Telangana, who worked at a café inside the airport.
Broader Context and What Comes Next
The escalating Houthi campaign against Saudi infrastructure has created a humanitarian crisis for thousands of Umrah pilgrims who travelled to the kingdom during the current season. This is the first time in recent memory that commercial flights to Saudi Arabia have been suspended at this scale due to active missile strikes, leaving pilgrims stranded without a clear return timeline.
With two deadly attacks in under two weeks, pressure is mounting on the Centre to mount a coordinated evacuation effort. Whether the government responds with emergency diplomatic channels or a special airlift — similar to operations mounted during past crises in the Gulf — will determine how quickly the stranded Indians can come home.
Point of View
But the harder question is why the Centre had not already moved. With two Houthi strikes on Saudi airports in eleven days, the trajectory was predictable, yet there is no visible government-led evacuation framework in place. India has successfully mounted Gulf crisis airlifts before — Vande Bharat during COVID-19, and the 1990 Kuwait evacuation remain benchmarks. Waiting for a parliamentarian's social media post to trigger action on 4,000 stranded citizens is a governance failure, not just a logistics challenge. The Ministry of External Affairs and DGCA need a joint rapid-response protocol for exactly these scenarios — and the current crisis should be the forcing function.
NationPress
22 Oct 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Indian pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia?
Indian Umrah pilgrims are stranded in Makkah and Madina because airlines including IndiGo, Akasa Air, and Air India have cancelled flights to Saudi Arabia following Houthi missile attacks on Saudi airports. Two attacks — on Riyadh on 11 October and Dammam on 21 October — have created an unsafe operating environment that has halted commercial services.
What has Asaduddin Owaisi demanded from the Centre?
Owaisi has urged the DGCA to permit airlines to operate larger aircraft for repatriation flights, or alternatively to arrange dedicated special flights for stranded pilgrims. He tagged four senior ministers and the Foreign Secretary in his X post, calling for urgent government intervention and immediate support for stranded pilgrims abandoned by their travel agents.
How many Indians are stranded and who are the known victims?
According to Owaisi, approximately 4,000 Indian pilgrims are stranded in Saudi Arabia. The 11 October Riyadh airport attack injured 11 Indians and killed Hyderabad techie Mohammed Yousuf Ali, 46, whose two sons were also injured. A second Indian was killed in the 21 October Dammam airport attack.
What were the Houthi attacks on Saudi airports?
Yemen's Houthi rebels struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on 11 October, killing 13 and injuring over 300. A follow-up missile attack on Dammam airport on the night of 21 October killed 2 and injured 8. The strikes have caused widespread flight cancellations across Saudi Arabia.
Has the Indian government responded to the stranded pilgrims crisis?
As of 22 October, no official government response has been reported. Owaisi's public call tagging four Union ministers and the Foreign Secretary is aimed at prompting that response. India has previously organised large-scale Gulf evacuations, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, which observers cite as a precedent for emergency repatriation.
