Hijack Drama Ends; India Criticizes Pakistan; US Deploys Naval Force

The arrival of the Indian Airlines relief plane at Bombay with 96 passengers and six bodies ended the tragic hijack drama of the Pan Am jumbo at Karachi airport. Bedlam prevailed at the arrival terminal after the Airbus A300 landed. Anxious relatives inquired in vain about passengers who did not figure among those in the plane and whose names were not mentioned in the official list. PM stands his ground Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said that Pakistan President Gen Ziaul Haq had himself told him in Harare that the Pan Am hijackers spoke in Urdu and Arabic. Gandhi stood by his statement that Pakistan had “badly bungled” in handling the rescue operation of the passengers and crew of the hijacked jetliner. Reagan’s response to Pan AM The US administration has said it has not linked the hijacking of Pan Am flight 073 in Karachi “with any specific group or government”, but ordered a navy battle group to the central Mediterranean in case President Ronald Reagan should decide to retaliate. The aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy, which has been in the Spanish port of Benidorm, is expected to sail eastward with escorting warships. NAM appeals to US, USSR In what is being hailed as the most important outcome, leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement have decided at their summit in Harare on a package of measures to help frontline African states in their struggle against apartheid and established a fund under the chairmanship of PM Rajiv Gandhi to undertake suitable projects.