India protests at handling of passengers on diverted flight
India today lodged a strong protest with the Netherlands at the way it handled Indian passengers on board a flight that was escorted by two Dutch F-16 fighter jets back to Amsterdam shortly after take-off, an Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
“The Dutch ambassador was told that we take this matter, the handling of the incident, very seriously and that it was not in conformity with the friendly relations between the Netherlands and India,” said Navtej Sarna, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman.
Dutch authorities detained 12 Indian passengers for more than a day and later released them after finding no evidence of a terrorist threat aboard the Northwest Airlines flight on Wednesday.
The men had aroused suspicions because they had a large number of mobile phones, laptops and hard drives, and refused to follow the crew’s instructions.
