S. Jaishankar, Foreign Minister
Geneva: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday revealed that his father was also on board the 1984 hijacked plane and was part of the team formed by the government to deal with the hijacking. Jaishankar was involved in the talks as a civil servant. He said that in such situations, he had a unique perspective on the views of “both sides” – family members and those in the government. Jaishankar was responding to a question about the recently released television series on the hijacking of IC814 in 1999 during an event here.
was part of the team that was dealing with the case
Jaishankar said, “How as a young officer I was part of the team that was dealing with the kidnapping case. On the other hand, I was among the family members who were pressuring the government about the kidnapping.” During the question-answer session after addressing the Indian community, one of the audience members wanted to know the minister’s reaction to the recent Netflix series ‘IC814: The Kandahar Hijack’.
shared personal experience
Jaishankar said that he has not seen this series. However, he shared his personal experience regarding the hijacking incident. He said, “In 1984, a plane was hijacked. I was a very young officer. I was part of the team that was dealing with it. I called my mother and told her that I cannot come, there has been a hijacking. I came to know that my father was in that plane. The plane stopped in Dubai. Fortunately, no one died, but something could have gone wrong.”
The passengers were released without any harm
On July 5, 1984, the Indian Airlines plane was hijacked from Pathankot and taken to Dubai. After about 36 hours, 12 pro-Khalistan hijackers surrendered to the authorities and all 68 passengers and six crew members were released without any harm. Jaishankar was an IFS officer and became a minister in the central government after retirement. His father K. Subrahmanyam was an IAS officer and used to comment regularly on strategic issues. (Input-Bhasha)
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