Twenty passengers and crew were killed in the incident and over 100 of the 380 persons on board suffered severe injuries.
MUMBAI: One hundred and seventy-six passengers, crew and family members who were victims of the September 5, 1986, hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan, have filed a suit against Libya and the terrorists convicted for the attack.
Twenty passengers and crew were killed in the incident and over 100 of the 380 persons on board suffered severe injuries.
Among the victims was Mumbai girl Neerja Bhanot, a flight purser, who fought the hijackers and was killed while shielding three children. She was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra, India’s highest civilian award for bravery, on Republic Day 1987.
Neerja’s brother Aneesh Bhanot told DNA that the suit was filed on April 5, 2006, by the law firm Crowell & Moring LLP in the US district court for the District of Columbia.
It seeks $10 billion in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages from Libya, its long-time leader Muammar Qadhafi, and the five convicted terrorists, all of whom were members of the notorious Abu Nidal Organisation (ANO).
Coming together from across the globe, the victims and family members who brought the suit include the estates of 13 people murdered in the attack, 32 of their family members, and 131 other passengers and crew.
The five hijackers were imprisoned by Pakistani courts. Their leader, Zaid Safarini, a Jordanian, was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation when he was released from Pakistan and taken to the United States for trial.
On December 16, 2003, Safarini pleaded guilty in the federal district court in Washington, DC, and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 25 years, which he is serving in a Colorado prison.
The four other terrorists remain in Pakistani jails, and the US has tried to get them extradited for prosecution in Washington, DC. It has publicly stated that Libya provided the ANO with material support for the hijacking and ordered the attack as part of its terrorist campaign against American, European, and Israeli interests.
According to Bhanot, the suit was discussed during Safarini’s sentencing in 2004. “It was there that we came to know that certain documents that had been declassified by the USA pointed to Libya’s role in the hijacking,” he said.
A five-member liaison committee of the victims, headed by Dr Prabhat Krishnaswamy, was formed to seek the truth behind the hijacking and hold Libya accountable. Four members of this committee were based in the US. Bhanot was the member from India.
“Since then, all of us have been searching for the truth. In India, the efforts included reaching out to other victims and their families all over India. For our family, of course, nothing would please us more than to hunt down the perpetrators of this horrendous crime against humanity, bring them to justice, and make them pay for their crimes,” he said.
Five armed men seized Pan Am Flight 73 when it was on the ground at Karachi airport. They intended to fly the Boeing 747 jumbo jet to Israel and crash it into the capital, Tel Aviv. But the pilots, who were alerted by the crew, escaped by climbing out of the cockpit using the emergency hatch. Without pilots, the hijackers could not get the aircraft off the ground.
The result: a terrifying 16 hour drama of killing, torture, and bravery. When the hijackers demanded that all passengers produce their passports, crew members hid the passports of the Americans on board to protect those who were the first targets.
During the standoff, the hijackers shot and killed an American citizen, heaved his body onto the tarmac, and threatened to kill a passenger every 10 minutes if their demands were not met.
As the aircraft’s power failed and the lights went out, the plane was stormed by Pakistani security forces. In the shootout that ensued, 20 passengers and crew were killed while many more were severely maimed, blinded, or disfigured by bullets, grenades, and shrapnel. Several others broke their arms and legs when they jumped from the plane on to the tarmac to escape the battle.
Neerja Bhanot factfile
Born: September 7, 1964
Place: Chandigarh
Parents: Rama and Harish Bhanot
School and college: Bombay
Joined Pan Am: 1985
Died: September 4, 1986
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