 |
Kathmandu,Sunday January 02, 2000 Paush 18th, 2056.
|
Four freed Nepalese back
home
- By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, Jan 1
- After a week-long ordeal onboard hijacked Indian Airlines IC 814, four Nepalese
citizens arrived in the capital late Saturday to a tumultuous welcome from family,
friends, and government officials.
Gajendra Man
Tamrakar, Heet Kumari Shrestha and the newly-wed couple Sanjay Dhital and Rozina Pathak
arrived onboard Royal Nepal Airlines Flight 218 from Delhi at about 5:15 PM.
The visibly
relieved ex-hostages were given a tumultuous welcome by family members and friends at the
Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
Also on hand to
welcome them were Foreign Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, Minister for Tourism and Civil
Aviation Bijay Kumar Gachchadar, Home, Communication and Information Minister Purna
Bahadur Khadka, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Arjun Jung Bahadur Singh, State
Minister for Civil Aviation Naryan Singh Pun, lawmaker P L Singh and other senior
government officials. Hundreds of onlookers also decamped outside the terminal to catch a
glimpse.
It was an
emotional scene at the airport as family members and friends hugged and wept.
With fresh
garlands around their necks and bouquets of flowers clutched tightly in their hands, the
foursome told newsmen that they were relieved to be free, alive and back in Nepal again.
They were then
escorted to their homes in government vehicles. “We are just glad to be back
home,” Sanjay Dhital said emerging from the TIA terminal as his wife Rozina sobbed
uncontrollably at his side. “It was an ordeal that is now over.”
Tamrakar said
that though he was happy and relieved to be back home from Kandahar, Afghanistan, he was
angry and hurt at the Indian news media for sullying his reputation by charging him to be
one of the hijackers. “I am shocked by the allegations,” Tamrakar said.
“You cannot imagine the horrible experience I went through or the suffering of my
family.”
Meanwhile,
government officials said that four other Nepalese citizens who were also held hostage
onboard the hijacked aircraft were still in India. Of them, Janak Lal Shrestha and his
wife embarked on their trip to Bangalore while Nilam Chapagain and Roshan Dahal were still
in Delhi and would soon be on their way home.
A senior RNAC
official said that Chapagain had informed officials that he would go to Deharadun, India,
to fetch his daughter from a boarding school.
The return of
the four Nepaleses comes just a day after the hijackers released all 155 hostages onboard
the Indian Airlines jet in Kandahar after reaching an agreement with the Indian
government. In exchange for the hostages, the Indian government handed over three jailed
militants to the hijackers.
IC 814 was
hijacked on December 24 soon after entering Indian airspace while on a scheduled flight
from Kathmandu to Delhi. The heavy jet was first diverted to Amritsar, then Lahore, Dubai
and finally to Kandahar where it sat throughout as the drama unfolded. One Indian
passenger was killed by the hijackers even before negotiations with India began.
The hijacking
of an international flight was the first such incident in Nepal and put the media
spotlight on security arrangements at TIA.
But responding
to the media barrage, government and airport officials strongly defended security at TIA
and said that the full story of the hijacking would have to wait till a high-level
fact-finding commission furnishes its report. The report is due in a week.
“Security
arrangements at the airport will be thoroughly reviewed after the commission submits its
report,” State Minister for Civil Aviation Narayan Singh Pun said Saturday after the
hostages returned home.
“Our airport security is according to
ICAO standards,” TIA Manager Medini Prasad Sharma said. “We are always reviewing
our security arrangements and will continue to do so.”
Other Stories
|
