Jail over Khamenei post: J&K youth returns home after 3 months in Saudi custody

After nearly three months of uncertainty, a 29-year-old man from Baramulla has finally reunited with his family after being released from a Saudi Arabian detention centre, where he says he was held incommunicado without any formal explanation. Amjad Ali Bhat arrived home ending an ordeal that began in March while he was working in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam. His return has brought relief to his family, who spent weeks seeking answers through diplomatic channels as they struggled to learn where he was or why he had been detained.

The incident unfolded on March 25 when several Saudi security officials arrived at his workplace and informed him that he needed to accompany them for what they described as a brief inquiry. They had told him that the questioning would only take a couple of hours. Instead, he was taken to a police station, where authorities seized his passport and identification documents before asking him to sign paperwork acknowledging their receipt.

During the interrogation, investigators focused on a Facebook post he had shared earlier that month featuring the late Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was completely cut off from his loved ones and wasn't allowed to contact the family at all.

The breakthrough finally came on June 25, when officials informed him that he would be released and deported to India. Saudi authorities arranged his travel from Riyadh to New Delhi, from where he returned to his hometown in Baramulla.

For his family, the homecoming marked the end of months filled with anxiety and unanswered questions.

Amjad's detention came against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions following the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a joint US-Israeli military operation in February 2026. Days later, Amjad had posted Khamenei's photograph on Facebook.

With little information available, Amjad's family had appealed to multiple Indian authorities for help. They had approached the Ministry of External Affairs, wrote to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, contacted the Indian Embassy in Riyadh and sought the intervention of Jammu and Kashmir MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi.