In a surprising revelation, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said that his father, a former senior diplomat, was on a hijacked flight in 1984 adding that he had a unique window on “both sides” in such situations – the perspective of family members and those in the government.
Jaishankar was answering a question during a community event in Geneva when he was asked about the recently released television series on the hijacking of IC814 in 1999. Jaishankar denied to comment on the series, saying that it would not be correct as he had not watched it.
However, he shared another experience of hijacking which was from 1984. He told the audience how as a young officer, he was part of the team dealing with the hijack situation in 1984. He elucidated that on the one hand, he was dealing with hijacking while on the other, he was part of the group of families putting pressure on the government.
Minister Jaishankar said, “In 1984 there was a hijacking. I was a very young officer. I was part of the team which was dealing with it. I rang up my mother, actually, to tell her, ‘Look, I can’t come.
There’s a hijacking,” he said.
“And then I discovered, my father was on the flight. The flight ended up in Dubai. It’s a long story, but fortunately, nobody got killed. It could have ended as a problem,” he added.
(With PTI Inputs)
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