‘My father was on hijacked plane in 1984’
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar revealed on Friday that he was involved in the negotiations during a plane hijacking in 1984, and that his father, a prominent Indian civil servant, was aboard the plane taken to Dubai.
Jaishankar, who was a young government officer at the time, was involved in managing the crisis and only later discovered his father, Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam, was on the flight. Speaking about the Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, the EAM commented, “I haven’t seen the film, so I don’t want to comment. In 1984, as a young officer, I was part of the team dealing with the hijacking. After a few hours, I called my mother to explain that I couldn’t come home due to the hijacking, only to find out that my father was on the flight,” ANI reported.
‘I called my mother…’: Jaishankar recalls 1984 hijacking
“It was interesting because, on the one hand, I was part of the team which was working on the hijacking. On the other hand, I was part of the family members who were pressing the government on the hijacking,” Jaishankar recalled in a speech in Geneva, Switzerland.
Jaishankar was born to K Subrahmanyam, a prominent international strategic affairs analyst and journalist, and Sulochana Subrahmanyam.
On August 24, 1984, an Indian Airlines flight from Delhi to Srinagar was hijacked over Pathankot and taken to Dubai. After 36 hours, 12 pro-Khalistani hijackers surrendered, releasing all 68 passengers and six crew members unharmed.
IC814: The Kandahar Hijack sparks controversey
IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack has sparked controversy, with critics accusing the filmmaker, Anubhav Sinha, of changing the names of the hijackers to ‘Shankar’ and ‘Bhola’ to allegedly shield terrorists from a specific community.
