24 years after Pan Am hijack, Neerja Bhanot killer falls to US drone [1986 Pan Am Flight 73 Hijack]

The Times of India ^ | 17 January 2010 | The Times of India

[James C. Bennett]

WASHINGTON: Half of India's population today wasn't born when she died in 1986 in a hail of gunfire on a hijacked plane after courageously saving scores of passengers, a feat for which she was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra in India, Tamgha-e-Insaniyat in Pakistan and the Justice for Crimes Award in the US. Earlier this week, some 24 years after her heroism, one of her killers died a dog's death in the badlands of Pakistan, reportedly shot to pieces in a US drone attack.

The saga of Neerja Bhanot transfixed India at a time where there was no 24-hour news television and it had little to do with the fact that her father was a New Delhi journalist. She was a flight attendant on Pan Am Flight 73 as it headed out of Mumbai to Karachi en route to Frankfurt and onward to New York City. Four armed men dressed as airport security guards stormed the plane in Karachi. The cabin crew managed to alert the pilots, who decamped, effectively grounding the flight.

In the hours-long ordeal that followed, Neerja showed exemplary courage, attested by some 350 passengers who survived the nightmare, although some 20 died and 120 were wounded after hijackers opened fire on them when Pakistani commandos prepared to storm the plane. Among her acts of courage was her refusal to collect US passports and hiding some of them as the hijackers sought to isolate Americans and Indians. She knew they meant business when one of the hijackers pulled Rajesh Kumar, a 29-year-old Indian American California resident to the front of the aircraft, asked him to kneel at the door, and shot him in the head when their demand for a new flight crew was not met.

Neerja died shielding three children from gunfire as a bloody massacre erupted on the plane. The hijackers, who were said to be from the Abu Nidal Organisation, were eventually captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in 1988. But in a Pakistan that became increasingly permissive about terrorism, the sentences were later commuted to life in prison.

In 2001, Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, the hijacker who shot Rajesh Kumar among others, was captured by the FBI in Bangkok after he was released in Pakistan and was on his way back to Jordan. He was taken to the US where he was sentenced to a 160-year prison term he is now serving in Colorado. Four others who were in Pakistan's Adiala jail were freed in January 2008 even as the US fumed about Islamabad's action. The FBI announced a $5 million bounty on their head, pretty much ensuring their days are numbered.

Earlier this week, Pakistani intelligence officials announced that a January 9 missile strike in the North Waziristan tribal region killed Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, one of the hijackers. His affiliation is disputed. The FBI's web site lists him as a Palestinian with possible Lebanese citizenship. The Pakistani officials called him an al-Qaida member, but the FBI site says he was a member of the Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist group.

There are no doubts about Neerja's affiliation though. She belongs to India's Hall of Courage.

[James C. Bennett]

Neerja Bhanot (September 7, 1964 - September 5, 1986) born in Chandigarh, India was the daughter of Harish & Rama Bhanot and was a Flight attendant for Pan Am airlines. She was the senior flight purser on the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73 flight.

She hid the passports of the passengers on the flight so that the hijackers could not differentiate between American and Non-American citizens. She laid down her life while shielding three children from the bullets fired by the terrorists.

For her bravery the Government of India posthumously awarded her the Ashoka Chakra (India's highest decoration for gallantry away from the battlefield, or not in the face of the enemy). She is the youngest recipient of the same. In 2004 the Indian Postal Service released a stamp commemorating her.

[Carley]

A woman of honor and courage.

Thank you.

[neodad]

You can run, but you can’t hide. Karma is a bit@h.

[trumandogz]

Twenty four years was way to long to let that POS live, but thankfully the USA finally killed him.

Kudos to all those involved in planning, approving and carrying out this attack.

[tet68]

Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini

Couldn’t we just cut the crap and call him

Al Safarini.
Zayd Safarini?

Repeating ALL their names gives them honor
they are not due.

[James C. Bennett]

From a link on WiKi:

"She realised that the Americans were the main target of the terrorists and in a brilliant move she discreetly collected all the American passports and hid them. There couldn’t have been a better way to confuse the terrorists.

The real-life, high-tension drama continued for 17 hours! Suddenly as power began failing and the lights became very dim, terrorists began to fire blindly. Instantly, Neerja dashed to the emergency door and flung it open, letting out a cry "Get out, run!" — the words that will continue to ring in the ears of the survivors. She used all her strength to guide and push people down the chute and while shielding three children, she absorbed the onslaught of bullets into her own body.

Weekend Review remarked:

"She was brave in life, brave in death. The only stewardess, to have commanded an aircraft and held the hijackers at bay, was an Indian."

[chuck_the_tv_out]

So what exactly was it that happened when Bush was president that hasn’t happend while 0bama was?

http://images.google.com/images?q=obama+warmonger

{heh heh heh}

[DesertRhino]

“The hijackers, who were said to be from the Abu Nidal Organisation”

This is the guy who lived in iraq until his suicide just before we invaded,, right? Iraq of course, being that country with no connection to terror.

[James C. Bennett]

Not merely that, here's more info:

March 28, 2004

Revealed: Gadaffi’s air massacre plot

From The Sunday Times

EXCERPT:

Revenge drove Gadaffi to order the Karachi hijacking. Five months earlier, in April 1986, President Ronald Reagan had sent jets to bomb Tripoli. Gadaffi himself was targeted. Scores died, including his one-year-old adopted daughter.

The American raid was punishment for the Libyan bombing of a Berlin discotheque in which two American servicemen died.

It put Gadaffi into a rage and he ordered the Libyan external intelligence service under his brother-in-law Abdullah Senoussi to retaliate.

According to intelligence sources, a plan was concocted with Gadaffi’s approval to hijack Pan Am flight 73 from Bombay to Frankfurt and New York and blast it out of the sky over Israel in reprisal.

Senoussi hired the services of Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian hitman. Nidal died in Baghdad in 2002, a broken reed. But in the 1980s, when he lived in Libya, his terrorist group was the most feared in the world. Financed by Libya he hired out gunmen to Arab governments to mount attacks on western and Israeli targets.

The terrorists flew to Pakistan and were provided with explosives and guns that had been smuggled in by diplomatic bag. They dressed up as Karachi airport security officers and seized the airliner when it landed on the first leg of its journey from Bombay. Beneath the uniforms, explosives were strapped to their bodies.

The operation went wrong when the American pilot escaped from an emergency exit. The plane was grounded. The hijackers executed an American passenger and dumped his body on the tarmac. After 18 hours trapped inside, the gunmen panicked when the lights failed. They opened fire and hurled grenades at the passengers as Pakistani troops stormed the plane.

All the terrorists were captured on the spot bar one — the Libyan organiser, Salman Ali al-Turki. He went on the run. But when he contacted the Libyan embassy a few days later asking them to contact Senoussi and arrange his escape from Pakistan, he was arrested.

The terrorists refused to break under interrogation so the Pakistani intelligence service concocted a brazen piece of deception. It tricked them into believing Gadaffi was dead by printing a dummy copy of a newspaper with a front page banner headline announcing his sudden demise in a plane crash.

When the paper was delivered to their cells, the terrorists broke down and confessed that the Libyan leader had sponsored their mission. It was no longer necessary to keep his role secret, they said, now that their hero was dead.

At the time of the hijacking, Gadaffi was attending a non-aligned summit in Harare, where he adopted a belligerent anti-American tone. He also planted a clue that gave him away, by boasting that an attack on America was imminent.

This statement, carried by a Libyan news agency, alerted the Pakistanis to Gadaffi’s possible involvement. But without the newspaper ruse they would never have known for sure.

The Karachi hijacking was the first attempt by terrorists to crash an airliner into a city. It failed, but it set a deadly trend.

Read more at link.

[tanuki]

Thanks for posting. Anyone who wants to see what’s at stake in the GWOT need only look at that photo.

[MarMema]

Wow. I had not heard about this. Thank you for posting.
God Bless you, Neerja.

[livius]

I had forgotten about this story.

I’m glad the evil killer got what wsa coming to him. Better late than never.

And as for her, prayers and gratitude.

[El Gato]

hen she died in 1986 in a hail of gunfire on a hijacked plane after courageously saving scores of passengers, a feat for which she was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra in India, Tamgha-e-Insaniyat in Pakistan and the Justice for Crimes Award in the US. Earlier this week, some 24 years after her heroism, one of her killers died a dog's death in the badlands of Pakistan, reportedly shot to pieces in a US drone attack.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving recipient. But I certainly wouldn't wish it on a dog, or even a pig. That would be cruel, but in this guy's case it was simple justice. Delayed, but justice nonetheless.

[left that other site]

And Not only that and that and the other thing,
Abu Abbas, the Achille Laurel hijacker was in Iraq too!

“terrorists or any country that HARBORS THEM”

[left that other site]

And Not only that and that and the other thing,
Abu Abbas, the Achille Laurel hijacker was in Iraq too!

“terrorists or any country that HARBORS THEM”

[bert]

......Twenty four years was way to long to let that POS live...

Isn’t that pretty typical for inmates on death row? Few get quick justice.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

They can run.

They can hide.

It all evens out in the end.

[Talisker]

For her bravery the Government of India posthumously awarded her the Ashoka Chakra (India's highest decoration for gallantry away from the battlefield, or not in the face of the enemy).

India gave her the wrong medal.

From trumandogz post #6 above: Neerja dashed to the emergency door and flung it open, letting out a cry "Get out, run!" — the words that will continue to ring in the ears of the survivors. She used all her strength to guide and push people down the chute and while shielding three children, she absorbed the onslaught of bullets into her own body.

She was on the battlefield, and died facing the enemy - not the opposite. The medal deprives her of that acknowledgement, and should be changed to reflect these profound aspects of courage in addition to the fact that she also gave her life to save others.

[lack-of-trust]

some 24 years after her heroism, one of her killers died a dog’s death

some 24 years after her heroism, one of her killers died a dog’s death!!!

one of her killers DIED A DOG’S DEATH!!!

it bears repeating.

[Enchante]

Amazing story — the fact that I had never read or heard about Neerja Bhanot and the entire saga of this terrorist attack may be partly my fault, but it also reflects the horrendous failures of our “news” media and political class.

Had this and many other terror attacks received adequate analysis and understanding long ago, the prospects for stopping terrorist jihad in its tracks in the ‘90s would have been far higher.

Instead, the pestilence was allowed to fester and spread for far far too long.