Will US airlines operating from India be affected by the Punjab &
Haryana High Court asking the Central Government to take up the issue of
discrimination by the US government against Indian victims of the 1986
Pan-Am flight 73? It may be recalled that the flight was hijacked in
Karachi by terrorists from Libya on 5 September 1986. As many as 13
Indians were killed and around 120 Indian passengers were injured in the
attack.
This was the flight on which Pan-Am's chief purser, 23 year old Neerja Bhanot was gunned down by terrorists as she tried to allow passengers to escape from the aircraft, which had mainly American citizens. Neerja Bhanot was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, which is India's highest peacetime gallantry award for bravery, in 1987. She became the first woman to receive the award.
Interestingly, decades after the incident, Indian victims are angry at being discriminated against by the US Government. They are asking for the licenses of these airlines to operate from India, to be suspended until they can prove that Indians would not be discriminated against and abandoned by them again in case a similar hijack or other terrorist incidents on board their planes happens today. If the US airlines are barred from the lucrative Indian market, it will mean a huge dent in their overall profitability.
Read news in full 26/06/14 Money Life
This was the flight on which Pan-Am's chief purser, 23 year old Neerja Bhanot was gunned down by terrorists as she tried to allow passengers to escape from the aircraft, which had mainly American citizens. Neerja Bhanot was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, which is India's highest peacetime gallantry award for bravery, in 1987. She became the first woman to receive the award.
Interestingly, decades after the incident, Indian victims are angry at being discriminated against by the US Government. They are asking for the licenses of these airlines to operate from India, to be suspended until they can prove that Indians would not be discriminated against and abandoned by them again in case a similar hijack or other terrorist incidents on board their planes happens today. If the US airlines are barred from the lucrative Indian market, it will mean a huge dent in their overall profitability.
Read news in full 26/06/14 Money Life
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