Pan Am hijack compensation: 'US disowned Indian victims'

New Delhi: More than 24 years ago, her daughter, Neerja Bhanot, died at the hands of Libya-backed terrorists, who had hijacked a Pan Am aircraft at the Karachi Airport. Now, Chandigarh-based Rama Bhanot, unhappy with the discriminatory attitude of the US government in settling claims cases of those who died in the hijack, has sought an audience with US President Barack Obama.
Neerja was the first Indian woman to get the Ashok Chakra in what was a recognition of the supreme sacrifice made by her of giving up her life to save the lives of passengers on board the aircraft. It were the US citizens, who were the main target of the four Palestinian terrorists who had carried out the hijacking. She fell to a hail of bullets after she had opened the emergency doors, flung a chute and was assisting passengers in escaping from the aircraft.
In a letter to the White House and the US Ambassador to India, Bhanot and over 120 other Indians, including families of 13 Indians who were killed in the 1986 hijacking, have asked Obama to provide justice to them.
29/10/10 Maneesh Chhibber/Indian Express

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2010, Safety Oct 2010