MUSLIM business leaders are boycotting Glasgow airport because they claim they are being subjected to humiliating searches by police.

Dozens of people, including several executives who regularly visit Pakistan, are flying from Manchester and Heathrow airports instead after being stopped, searched and interrogated by “heavy-handed” anti-terrorist officers every time they travel.

One wealthy businessman from Glasgow claims to have been detained a dozen times in the past year.

Community and business leaders, including Bashir Maan, the former Glasgow councillor and Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, have met senior officers at Strathclyde police to discuss the alleged mistreatment of Muslims.

They say that dozens of Muslims who have travelled to Pakistan since November 2005, when Pakistan International Airlines launched a direct route from Glasgow to Lahore, have raised concerns.

Though they acknowledge that the police should carry out routine checks of passengers, Muslim leaders claim ethnic minorities are being unfairly singled out.

They include a Muslim man who claims he was publicly humiliated earlier this year when he landed at Glasgow from Pakistan.

He says a female officer rifled through his luggage in front of other passengers and quizzed him on why he had items of women’s clothing in his suitcase. The clothing belonged to his wife.

Another passenger had home-made sweets that he had brought from Pakistan confiscated by the authorities for “chemical analysis”.

Others have complained that police officers refused to repack their luggage after emptying the contents.

Mohammad Ashref, a Glasgow businessman who runs a multi-million-pound fashion business supplying clothes to high street stores, is among those boycotting the airport because they feel they have been mistreated.

Last year he spent about £6,000 travelling club class to Lahore from Glasgow but now flies out of Manchester or Heathrow, where he says he is treated with more respect by the authorities.

“It’s a pity the way Glasgow airport is treating Asians at the moment,” he said. “Police officers at Manchester and London are very courteous. They ask about my business in Pakistan but in Glasgow the tone is very aggressive, the body language is confrontational. It’s like an interrogation.”

Dr Mohammad Anwar, from Glasgow’s central mosque, also claims to have been mistreated by police officers at Glasgow airport.

“We accept the police need to be vigilant but this sort of behaviour is unacceptable, it’s a disgrace,” he said.

“This is creating more distance between our community and the authorities. We need to sort this out.”

Strathclyde police has agreed to give officers posted at Glasgow and Prestwick airports further training to raise awareness of cultural and religious sensitivities.

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