Boeing crash work of Ananda Marga?
NZPA-Reuter Bombay The Air India Boeing 747 jumbo jet which blew up and crashed in the sea near Bombay on New Year’s Day killing all 213 aboard, may have been sabotaged by an extreme Right-wing Indian group, sources close to the Bombay Airport authorities have said.
The sources quoted the authorities as saying that the Rightists had threatened to attack an Air India airliner in a message sent to the airline’s London office on December 28. The sources identified the Right-wing group as the “People’s Revolutionary Organisation for Universal Truth,” known in India as the “International Proutist Organisation,’’ which is linked to the Hindu Ananda Marga sect. The group is reported to has- attacked several Indian diplomats stationed abroad, including the United States, Britain, and Australia in recent months in an effort to obtain the release from prison of the Ananda Marga leader, P. R. Sarkar, jailed 18 months ago on charges of having killed several former supporters. ... Since Air India received the threatening message, it has conducted stricter checks on all flights. The 747 which was destroyed on Sunday evening had been delayed at take-off for the checks, Agence FrancePresse reports. All the 213 passengers and crew on board died when the Dubai-bound plane plunged into the sea shortly after take-off from Bombay Airport.
Samachar news agency says 14 naval ships were still engaged yesterday in the task of recovering the remaining bodies. Another report says that Air India has ordered two sets of sophisticated electronic equipment from the United States and some other countries in-Europe to help the search for the “black box” flight-recorder of the ill-fated plane.
Boeing crash work of Ananda Marga?
Press, 6 January 1978, Page 5
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