mumbai the shakespearean poser whats in a name couldnt have seemed more ironical in todays world not just vips and celebrities immigration authorities in the us as well as other countries including india have detained regular travellers with certain names and surnames in the past on suspicion or because their documents and details match someone on their lookout list while it can be an unnerving experience for innocent passengers immigration authorities say they have a right to question people if an alert pops up on their system four years ago mumbai crime branch and immigration officials suddenly prepared themselves to receive an unlikely guest a tipoff said that dawood ibrahim was to land at mumbai airport from london he did arrive and was detained by crime branch officials almost seven hours of questioning and verification of documents revealed that this dawood was a menial worker who had come to attend a wedding at gujarat it feels you are in a nomans land and during those hours of questioning you often wonder what if you are again caught at the wrong side of the lookout list asked shahid khan who was detained at jfk airport five years ago khan had a stopover at the airport before flying out to ohio on an assignment i was asked to step aside and the homeland security officials took me to a room no communication was possible as there were phone jammers to bar signals i wasnt allowed to talk to anyone for the five hours i spent there i was asked if i had any other name what places i had travelled to in the past few years he added khan said the security and immigration officers were not hostile and were very professional while people who have gone through the trauma of being questioned as a possible suspect say it may be part of racial profiling immigration officers said it is their duty to interrogate passengers whose name or any other details match a suspect on the lookout list such situations do arise but you cant let the passenger go without checking sometimes a passengers profile is not visible properly or heshe may share their name with a suspect or there might be similarities in passport number in such a situation every country has the right to verify the details irrespective of the nationality of the person said a senior customs official no person is detained unless there is a considerable similarity with the details of a suspect he added