Saturday, Jul 20, 2002
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Ms. Varma and others, who were suspected by a passenger as terrorists on a Chicago-New York flight, were interrogated by police and other investigators, the 20-year-old award-winning actress said earlier. The passenger told flight attendants that the group was exchanging notes and switching seats in a ``suspicious'' manner on the July 16 flight. The attendants passed on the information to the pilot. Ground authorities were notified immediately and two F-16 fighter jets scrambled to escort the Boeing 757 aircraft with 98 passengers aboard into La Guardia Airport, New York City's domestic airport, according to Alan Hicks of the Port Authority. The actress had no idea that she and others would be questioned till the flight landed in New York. ``I got scared on seeing police and other officials,'' said Ms. Varma, adding, ``we were asked whether we had been to Afghanistan or Pakistan recently.''
Her detainment, which lasted nearly five hours, caused concern in the press in India and among Indians in the U.S. ``We are concerned,'' said Sunil Lal, the press relations counsellor at the Indian Embassy in Washington. ``These things should not happen.'' Matthew A. Gold, a lawyer who was in the row behind Ms. Verma on the flight, said he thought the airline over-reacted to the group's behaviour. ``They were laughing and talking excitedly while straining to look out of a window,'' Mr. Gold said. ``One guy was pointing out skyline sights from across the aisle. They were making a lot of commotion and drawing a lot of attention to themselves. On that basis, I assumed they were not terrorists. They were just having fun.'' There have been several incidents of South Asian performers of varying degrees of fame being detained at airports. In May, security officials in Toronto questioned the actor, Kamal Hasan. The same month, 11 Pakistan musicians were removed from three flights in two days because jittery passengers complained that they looked suspicious. Nitin Mukul, the administrative and creative director of the IndoCenter of Art and Culture in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, who sponsored the musicians' visit, said that people from southern Asia were being unfairly singled out for scrutiny. ``It was a tremendous embarrassment,'' Mr. Mukul said. ``They are artists. I think there is so much paranoia, and the judgment calls that people in the airlines are making are really questionable.'' Jacob Roy, publisher of Malayalampathram, who sponsored the trip by Ms. Varma's group with Mr. Vijayan said on Thursday that no one had formally apologised. ``The police, they said sorry — but nothing else so far,'' Mr. Roy said. ``It is strange that no one called to apologise.'' _ UNI, AP
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