For Abdul Latheef Naushad of Kollam, taking in an eyeful of the coconut trees rushing up before the Gulf Air flight touched down on the Thiruvananthapuram runway today, meant a lot more than a home coming. But for a combination of luck, diplomatic niceties and international pressure, Naushad would have been returning today with an eye gouged out by his jailors in Saudi Arabia.Naushad, a filling station attendant in Riyadh, had been in a Saudi prison for the last three years, awaiting the execution of a Shariah court verdict that said his right eye be gouged out. He had been arrested after a Saudi man, who assaulted him for not taking back a spare part that Naushad had sold him, was hurt in the eye in the melee. Soon, the injury rendered the Arab blind in that eye and the Shariah court handed down its eye-for-an-eye sentence on Naushad.All these years, Naushad’s old mother Nafeesa, his wife Suhaila and their two little kids have been praying and petitioning everyone from MLAs and MPs to the Prime Minister and President seeking to get the Saudi government to spare him the punishment. Luckily, new Saudi monarch Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz decided to be the first-ever Saudi king to visit India in the last 51 years, soon after taking over. Just before he flew in with all the diplomatic trappings, Abdullah pardoned Naushad, and the Saudi Ambassador in Delhi informed the Indian government.It took another three months for Naushad to get his final reprieve and board a flight back. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was at the airport to receive him, offered to help him go back to Saudi Arabia if he wished, or find him a job here.‘‘I am not thinking of anything now. I just want to be with my wife and kids,’’ Naushad said.
