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Muslim Bollywood star briefly detained at LAX

August 12, 2016

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan has publicly complained he's detained at US airports "every damn time" after landing in Los Angeles. Khan starred in a 2010 drama about Muslims in the US coping with post-9/11 paranoia.

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Shah Rukh Khan
Image: Getty Images/AFP/N.Seelam

Khan wrote on Twitter on Friday complaining that US authorities at Los Angeles International Airport had detained him for a secondary check. Celebrities and top officials in India are routinely given special treatment and often either avoid security checks or go through a brief cursory check.

It's at least the third time the outspoken international film actor has been detained at a US airport. In 2012 he was stopped at an airport in upstate New York and in 2009 he was detained for two hours at Newark.

The latest social media outburst received sympathy from US diplomats who said they empathized with the inconvenience of modern air travel.

Star of 2010 'My name is Khan' drama

USA Los Angeles Flughafen
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is one of the busiest airports in the United States.Image: picture alliance/dpa

Following his earlier detainments, Khan had speculated he received extra scrutiny due to his Muslim last name.

In 2010, the Indian actor stared in "My Name is Khan," a critically acclaimed drama about an Indian Muslim who emigrates to the United States and is wrongfully imprisoned on false suspicions following the September 11, 2011 attacks in New York and Washington.

jar/kl (AP, dpa)