Washington: Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar was pulled from an airport security line and patted down by an American security agent in Mississippi despite being told of her diplomatic status.
In this file photo, Meera Shankar presents her credentials to President Barack Obama during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House.
Shankar presented her diplomatic papers to officers and was escorted by a Mississippi Development Authority representative and an airport security officer, but witnesses said she was subjected to the hands-on search.
She was taken to a VIP waiting room despite being told she was an ambassador. She was later pulled from a security line and patted down by a female Transportation Security Administration agent.
The Jackson airport does not yet have full-body screeners, which meant that the ambassador became subject to the thorough pat-down, the paper said.
New TSA regulations went into effect on November 1 allowing federal security officers at airports to switch to more thorough - but often controversial - "pat-downs" for passengers who require hand searches.
Shankar was in Jackson as a guest of Mississippi State University.
Gov. Haley Barbour's spokesman Dan Turner said the governor's office is looking into the incident.
"At this time, we're trying to find out exactly what happened - all of the details," Turner said.
Source: The Indian Express