Ashok Chakra stamps and First Day Cover of Neerja Bhanot and Randhir Prasad Verma.
Neerja Bhanot (September 7, 1963 – September 5, 1986, was a flight attendant for Pan Am airlines, based in Bombay, India, who died while fighting terrorism on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on September 5, 1986, she went on to become the the youngest recipient of India’s highest civilian award for bravery, the Ashoka Chakra.
The hijackers said to be from the Abu Nihal Organisation were captured, tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 1988 but later commuted to life in prison due to soft approach of Pakistan towards terrorism.
In 2001 , Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, the hijacker who shot the passengers was captured by FBI in Bangkok after being released by Pakistan. In the US, he is presently serving 160 years prison term in Colorado. Four others were freed from Pakistan's Adiala Jail in January 2008. The FBI has announced a $5 million bounty on their head.
Pakistani intelligence officials announced that one of the hijackers, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim was killed in North Waziristan tribal region in a US missile attack on 9 January 2010. As per the FBI website he was a Palestinian with possible Lebanese citizenship. ( Sunday Times of India, 17 January 2010 )
Neerja Bhanot was the senior flight purser on the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73, hijacked as it headed out of Mumbai and landed at Karachi en route to Frankfurt and onward to New York City by four armed terrorist. Despite being tackled, she helped the three-member cockpit crew of pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer escape. In the following 17-hour ordeal, she hid the passports of the passengers on the flight so that the hijackers could not differentiate between American and Non-American citizens. Eventually, she opened the emergency door, flung a chute and assisted a number of passengers escape from the flight, while she laid down her life shielding three children from the bullets fired by the terrorists.
"Her loyalties to the passengers of the aircraft in distress will forever be a lasting tribute to the finest qualities of the human spirit".
Ashok Chakra Citation of Neerja Bhanot.
Randhir Prasad Verma was an Indian police officer who laid down his life while trying to resist a robbery attempt in a bank in Dhanbad. He was posthumously awarded gallantry award Ashok Chakra.
While serving in Dhanbad as the Superintendent of Police he died while resisting robbery at Bank of India branch on 3 January 1991.
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