SRK's detention: Indian envoy asked to take up issue with US

New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) India Friday asserted it will take up the issue of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's detention at a New York airport with the US authorities and made it clear to Washington that "a policy of detention and apology" cannot continue.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has asked India's Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao to take up the matter with the US authorities, said sources in India's external affairs ministry here.

He also made it clear that this policy of detention and apology by the US cannot continue, the sources said.

Shah Rukh was detained at New York's White Plains airport for two hours Thursday as he arrived to visit Yale University, where he was honoured as a Chubb Fellow. The actor, who was detained by the immigration authorities, was allowed to go only after his hosts intervened and took up the issue with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, according to sources.

Subsequently, the US customs and border protection authorities expressed "profound" apologies over Khan's detention.

Before addressing the students at Yale University after joining the roster of Yale University's Chubb Fellows, one of the Ivy League institution's highest honours, for promoting human ideals through art, Shah Rukh recalled he was "detained" at the airport "as always happens".

In August 2009 also, Khan was stopped at the Newark Airport and was released after two hours at the intervention of the Indian consulate in New York.