THIS is apropos the news item captioned ‘Sixth Pakistani beheaded in Saudi Arabia in three weeks’ (Nov 7). It is a matter of great shame that often Pakistanis are hauled up for smuggling heroin and beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

It has been going on for decades. How do they dodge Pakistan airport authorities? Suspicious characters can be singled out and X-rayed.

A comprehensive X-ray can be taken of the gastrointestinal system. Suspicious passengers should be detained at airports and until properly screened, they should not be allowed to board the aircraft.

If millions of suitcases and people are X-rayed at airports around the world, why do we fail to X-ray people at our airports? Sniffer dogs can be very handy because the smell of heroin can be detected by dogs from the clothes of an offender. If this task is taken up by the ASF with missionary zeal, our country can be spared the pain of facing utter shame and embarrassment.

The million-dollar question is: how the Saudis catch them at their airports while we fail to do so here or do we connive and consciously let them go to Saudi Arabia only to be executed.

Safir A. Siddiqui

Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2014