NEW DELHI, India, July 4, Reuter: India on Monday deplored as an act of violence the US. Shooting down of an Iranian airliner with 290 people on board, including several Indians.
“The act of violence has demonstrated only too clearly that peace in the region must be restored speedily by a process of negotiations….. Not through futile resort to force”, said an Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman.
The spokesman said Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had extended his sympathies to Iran and to the families of the Indian victims.
The Ministry said nine Indians, including five children, were thought to have been on board the Iranian airbus A300 brought down by missile fire from a U.S. warship in the Gulf.
It said Indian diplomats in Iran were trying to confirm the toll from what Washington called an unfortunate accident for which the Iranian aircraft was partly to blame by ignoring radio warnings and being out of its commercial airplane.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 8, 1988
