Internet Desk: India’s Olympian shooters Kynan Chenai and Gurpreet Singh, along with other international shooters were detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport, at New Delhi by the customs department of India for more than 13 hours today.
The ace shooters, who were returning after participating in the Plzen shooting Grand Prix, have been held at the airport by the customs department. The customs department was not clearing the shooters guns, leaving the shooters completely clueless about the future course of the action.
“After a 20-hour flight, we arrived at the airport at 4 am, the department didn’t clear our weapons and said we will have to wait for the customs commissioner. He was supposed to arrive at 10 am, but he didn’t come, and we didn’t get any clarity from the officials present on duty. We still don’t know the reason we have been detained. We are international shooters and have been travelling to various tournaments around the world,” said a shooter who didn’t wished to be named.
The shooter also said one of the officials used foul language with them and was rude throughout. “We were sleep deprived, hungry. When we told this to the officer there, he said ‘you won’t die if you don’t eat’. We were left speechless. “When we went for Plzen, the same department had issued us letters with their stamp and serial numbers of our guns. We have the same guns and the letters. We don’t have even a screw extra, but they don’t trust their own letters,” he added.
Among the shooters, there were a few who had missed their connecting flights to different cities. “We had booked connecting flights with a gap of 4 hours. But we had to miss the flights, as we couldn’t leave without getting the clearance,” said another shooter.
“We have a World Cup in Munich, which will start from May 17. Every day counts for us now. Today’s day has been wasted and this is going to hurt our preparation,” the shooter added.When asked about delay in giving clearance, additional commissioner at IGIA, Amandeep Singh said they were waiting for the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence’s clearance for the same.
According to the sources, the international shooters are being subject of scrutiny after a few national shooters were arrested for smuggling illegal pistols some days ago.