July 20, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 9, 1423

NEW YORK, July 19: Indian film star Samyuktha Verma is used to rapturous receptions. But not when the escorts are F-16 fighter jets, and the welcoming committee is made up of highly-trained anti-terrorist agents.

Verma and six travelling companions were excitedly discussing their imminent arrival at New York’s LaGuardia airport on Tuesday night, not knowing that their high spirits had caused them to be labelled possible terrorist suspects.

At least one passenger told the crew of American Trans Air Flight 204 from Chicago that he had seen the group of Indians switching seats and passing notes in an apparently suspicious manner.

The resulting alert involved the scrambling of two F-16 jets and a grilling on landing for Verma’s party by Port Authority police and agents of the joint terrorist task force.

Verma, a veteran of 18 movies and a major star of the Malayalam-language film industry in south India, said that their behaviour on the plane had gone no further than ordinary high spirits.

“We were arguing over who would sit next to the window because New York is such a beautiful city, and it was our first time here,” she said.

“When the plane landed, the police came on and a woman pointed to us. Then they took the men away.”

Among those questioned was Biju Narayanan, pop-singer in the south Indian state of Kerala.

The men were asked what they were doing in the United States, whether they had travelled in Pakistan or Afghanistan and what religion they followed. They were all Hindus.

Asian groups in the United States, particularly in New York, have complained of racial profiling in the anti-terror campaign launched after the Sept 11 attacks.

Verma, however, seemed not to have been embittered by her experience, saying that the police had treated them very well.

“America is a good country, and I understand people are afraid of people who look different,” she said.—AFP