It isn't only entrepreneurs and investors who are watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing trip to the US.
Also paying close attention to him are six people from Bengaluru who were either passengers on the hijacked plane Pan Am 73 in 1986, or had relatives on board that flight. Last week, ahead of Modi’s US visit, Dr Kishore Murthy, a passenger aboard the flight, and five others renewed their representation to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office asking India to lobby the US government for the compensation they say is rightfully owed to them.
The passengers have long argued that the Indians on board the flight have not got their due from the US. They claim that they too should have been awarded compensation, just like the 41 American passengers did. After all, they say, the attack took place in an American aircraft, Americans were the main targets and Indians became collateral damage.
The flight from Mumbai to New York with 360 passenger abroad was hijacked when it made a routine stop to pick up passengers in Karachi. Indians formed about 25% of the passengers on board. Of the 20 passengers who were killed in the 17-hour hostage crisis, 12 were Indian. Among them was chief purser Neerja Bhanot, whose bravery and alertness prevented even more deaths.
In 2008, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, paid out a $1.5 billion settlement to the US government for various terror attacks connected to Libya. This was for global resolution of all terror cases pending against Libya, the Indians passengers claim, intended for affected people of all nationalities.
The settlement was meant to cover attacks including the Lockerbie bombing and the hijacking of Pam Am 73 involving the Libya-supported Palestinian Abu Nidal group. The US paid out $10 million for each American who was killed on the Pan Am flight, $3 million for those were sustained injured and $500,000 for the rest of its citizens who were aboard the plane. But Washington has said its existing laws do not allow it to pay compensation to non-Americans.
This is what the Indian passengers are hoping Modi will remedy.
28/09/15 Bhavya Dore/Scroll.in
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Also paying close attention to him are six people from Bengaluru who were either passengers on the hijacked plane Pan Am 73 in 1986, or had relatives on board that flight. Last week, ahead of Modi’s US visit, Dr Kishore Murthy, a passenger aboard the flight, and five others renewed their representation to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office asking India to lobby the US government for the compensation they say is rightfully owed to them.
The passengers have long argued that the Indians on board the flight have not got their due from the US. They claim that they too should have been awarded compensation, just like the 41 American passengers did. After all, they say, the attack took place in an American aircraft, Americans were the main targets and Indians became collateral damage.
The flight from Mumbai to New York with 360 passenger abroad was hijacked when it made a routine stop to pick up passengers in Karachi. Indians formed about 25% of the passengers on board. Of the 20 passengers who were killed in the 17-hour hostage crisis, 12 were Indian. Among them was chief purser Neerja Bhanot, whose bravery and alertness prevented even more deaths.
In 2008, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, paid out a $1.5 billion settlement to the US government for various terror attacks connected to Libya. This was for global resolution of all terror cases pending against Libya, the Indians passengers claim, intended for affected people of all nationalities.
The settlement was meant to cover attacks including the Lockerbie bombing and the hijacking of Pam Am 73 involving the Libya-supported Palestinian Abu Nidal group. The US paid out $10 million for each American who was killed on the Pan Am flight, $3 million for those were sustained injured and $500,000 for the rest of its citizens who were aboard the plane. But Washington has said its existing laws do not allow it to pay compensation to non-Americans.
This is what the Indian passengers are hoping Modi will remedy.
28/09/15 Bhavya Dore/Scroll.in
