KARACHI, July 25: A teenage nephew of former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal was offloaded on Tuesday from a Dubai-bound flight, apparently because the boy’s name is on the Exit Control List.

“Behram Mengal was held incommunicado for over five hours by the immigration authorities. He was allowed to go home at 6pm,” Mr Mengal told Dawn from Quetta.

Accompanied by a cousin and a friend, Behram was on his way to Dubai for the summer holidays.

Sardar Mengal said the boy was unlawfully detained by the authorities. He added that the boy had been told by the immigration authorities that he was being offloaded from the Dubai-bound Emirates flight because his name was on the Exit Control List.

“Do teenage Baloch boys pose a threat to the government? We did not know that children’s names are also on the Exit Control List,” he said.

However, an official of the FIA immigration department, who did not want to be named, said that Behram bore a striking resemblance to Nooruddin Mengal whose name was on the Exit Control List.

“By the time we ascertained that he was not Nooruddin, Behram had missed his flight,” the FIA official said.