JEDDAH, 22 February 2006 — Two Indian pilgrims who were arrested for bringing into the Kingdom 250 grams of “khash khash,” the poppy seeds commonly used in Indian dishes, will be released in “a day or two”.
Suhel Ejaz Khan of the Indian Consulate in Jeddah said the Saudi authorities have acceded to the request of the consulate and the Haj Ministry to let Siraj Fareed Muhammad and his aunt, Hanifa Yousuf, go back to India.
“Their travel formalities are being completed; the two are currently lodged in Jeddah’s Briman deportation center,” Ejaz Khan told Arab News yesterday.
Consulate officials met the two at the deportation center yesterday and said they were in good shape. Their relatives have also been informed of their impending release.
For many expat families from the Subcontinent, “khash khash” is as common as salt or pepper, but the two pilgrims from the western Indian state of Gujarat discovered that this specific poppy seed is a no-no in Saudi Arabia only when they were arrested on arrival at the Jeddah airport on Dec. 31.
If cultivated, “khash khash” produces opium flowers (known by the scientific name Papaver somniferum) whose sap is harvested to produce heroin. In the United States, where poppy seeds can be purchased at any grocery store, the plant of the seed is considered a Schedule II narcotic and is illegal to possess. The seeds, however, are found topping bagels, or used to make poppy-seed sweetbread. The seeds do not induce any narcotic effect, but it has been shown in several court cases in the US that one can fail a drug test hours after eating food items containing poppy seeds.
“I would like to inform you that the tiny poppy seeds have absolutely no narcotic properties and are sold as bird food,” Shah Muhammud Fadil Auckburaully, an Arab News reader wrote in by e-mail from Mauritius. “Poppy seeds are used for flavoring. They may be sprinkled on bread and rolls, or used in filling for cakes.”
Fareed, who manages a travel agency in Gujarat, told Arab News that he had performed Haj four times in the past.
“I never had any problems,” Fareed lamented. “This time, however, since my aunt was coming with me I thought we would do some cooking, and so I put ‘khash khash’ into the luggage. In India, this is a normal substance used in cooking, and I had no idea that it would land us in jail,” Fareed said.
Authorities, however, had some sympathy for the accidental “khash khash” smugglers and allowed Fareed and Hanifa to perform Haj at the request of the Indian Consulate. Then the two went back to jail.
Ausaf Sayeed, the Indian consul general, told this newspaper that the Haj Ministry had recommended to the Makkah Governorate to view the case with sympathy and expedite their release.
The Indian consul general said the pair brought a small quantity of “khash khash”. He didn’t think the two were evildoers. “As far as my assessment is concerned,” Sayeed said, “both pilgrims are innocent.”
The case, which was first reported in Arab News, shocked hundreds of expat families in the Kingdom. Although many knew the substance was banned, they had no idea that bringing in a mere 250 grams of “khash khash” would have such dire consequences.
Apparently, the hapless pilgrims aren’t the first to want to spice things up. “Even I was ignorant of this substance being banned until this case was reported in the media,” said one Indian housewife from Dammam. “I am lucky to have escaped arrest because in the year 2000 I brought in two kilos of ‘khash khash’ to the Kingdom for cooking purposes,” she told Arab News.
She is counting her blessings and thinks an awareness campaign in the Subcontinent might be in order. “This case should be an eye-opener for all the future pilgrims,” she cautioned.
Meanwhile, Fareed and Hanifa are anxiously waiting to get back to a place where “khash khash” is just a nice spice.
