What was the "technical fault" in the aircraft that couldnt be fixed in Lahore or Islamabad? Last I checked, Delhi was further away geographically than Lahore flying from Bahrain.

Next time return the favour with interest to Indians when something similar happen to airline carrying Indian passengers in Pakistani territory

Indians should have shown some courtesy for the people in misery.

@Sajjad Razza when was the last time courtesy was shown by Muslims to Hndoos!? Get real

ok that was low from Hidustanis

This sounds so weird. A flight from Bahrain To Lahore made an emergency landing in Delhi which is way out of the route of this journey. Something doesn't add up here. Though I am happy that passengers are safe.

The benefits of having a great neighbor.

The flight was diverted due to bad weather. Our dear PM is so concerned that he even was willing to send a PIA aircraft to delhi. It is the responsibility of the carrier to transport passengers to the destination Mr. PM. By the way there must be someone close and dear to PM travelling on gulf air which worries PM so much. Stop burdening PIA. It is because of these interventions PIA is cash strived.

How fast we come to conclusions, what was the status, condition, ground realities or complications, may be state / non state, good / bad terrorist game plan. Hang on they are back to Pak. Do not jump to blame games.

Something is strange about this incident...emergency landing at an airport which is nowhere close to the flight path. Pakistan should seek explanation from both Gulf Air and the Indian government.

Sad They should've fecilitated the already troubled people. Very SAD...No India comments on this I believe yet for everyhting else even the internal situation of Pakistan & matters they have a comment ???? & suggestions ??....Yet on their own short Comings they dont ?

Is the Pilot was an Indian nationality holder? What was the route of the flight? These are the questions to arise in the mind of a common man.

Dear Dawn, As a responsible newspaper can you not just explain how this diversion to Delhi took place (which is further away than Lahore), rather than indulge in meaningless blame game. We dont read Dawn to be ahead of the news (for that we have the unbridled electronic media reporting on events before they happen), but for news that determine and explain the facts

@Z Khan Just for the record, the Indian Airlines Kandahar flight which was hijacked landed in Lahore onward to Kandahar in 1999. Give praise where due man. We repaired this flight and let it return.

Coming Home hope that you enjoyed treatment....

Such events show the real face of India. Passengers stranded inside the plane for that long just because the flight was going to Pakistan. What's wrong with so called democratic country. I am sure the passengers had nothing to do with diverting the plane to India and aircraft belonged to Gulf Air. No comments from my very vocal Indian friends on this issue. I hope they are ashamed of their democratic and so called tolerant country

I bet the pilot would get fired or beaten for putting Pakistani passengers in risk by taking them to India.

@Sajjad Razza we did in return we get highjacking n bomb blast

i remember how highjacker of indian airlines are roaming free in pakistan ..

Absolutely disgusting actions by the Indian authorities who did not let these passengers disembark at the airport. It seems that no one in the Indian government had the guts to let 200 innocent passengers rest in a hotel or a transit lounge; very sad.

Someone please show this pilot geographic map.

Good that passengers were not allowed to deboard, it could have been a security risk otherwise.

If ppl are getting angry about not letting out of plane, plyz read abut the place it landed. H1N1 virus is all around!

If they got out of the olane they would want political asylum in India. Good move keeping these animals in their cage.

Thank you India for the hospitality! I hope we we will return the same with interest.

@Sajjad Razza you never did when the Indian airline was kidnapped ..they asked landing in Pakistan and your people switched the airport lights off..do you know this incident first ??????

the air route from middle east meets delhi first and then a sharp turn is made towards lahore. More over weather in lahore could have been bad hailstorm lightning etc. so pilot request nearest and shortest airport , as per flying rules. it is incorrect to speculate something was 'missing' here

All the passengers of the aircraft were later accommodated in the transit lounge of the T3. Times of India

remember you dis-grateful.....indian airlines uses Pakistan air space, next time we see you we will shoot you down before you try to land in Pakistan due to technical fault. It's Pakistan Hospitality last time your plane was allowed to land in Pakistan/Nawabshah and served beverages before return.

Did passengers had Indian Visa - No Do India provide visa on arrival to Pakistanis - No Why would have the passengers been allowed to deboard ? Unlike pakistan, India does have rules and regulations.

@Kanwarch what if there is a bomb in the plane? who is responsible for the safety of people at the airport? 12-14 hours discomfort is nothing if there was an explosion at the airport. Remember the security check was carried out by bahrain airport officials not indian officials. How can they be sure that it is safe?

Quite ashamed if it is true. But, Indians are definitely not so small hearted. There could be some other complications in the procedures Trolls from Pakistan ... relax

How could they let them embark? What if there were some terrorists hiding among the passengers? India fixed the plane and sent it back to Pakistan. Isn't that good enough?

@Sajjad Razza ,,Dear think over how Pakistanis are being treated, out side Pakistan , introspect and act accordingly.

This is technically raised by airline staff that they want to shift their passengers to Airport. Seems like airlines have nigher asked for shifting or allowed PIA to send their plane.

@adnan HAVE U seen air route ?? or world map fyi it was rainning and lighting heavily in delhi as well

@agha Friend, Bcoz u can be sure that Indian people will not indulge in any cross border terrorism. Will you be able to give back the same assurance.

Indians have shown their traditional courtesy and warmth towards Pakistanis by not letting the passengers go out of the plane. Our passengers were forced to stay in the plane for 14 hours. OMG, is this human to behave like this ???

@Kanwarch : You should remeber when Indian flight was hijacked by Pakistani nationalist and those who were travelling in that flight they were also human. You people did not even provided water to small kids.

@Rajni It was a technical landing Einstein. Have you ever been inside if a airport?! All it required was to remove the passengers to a lounge and that was it.

@Agha: You know what, PIA plane was once grounded by Iran authority because of fuel overdue which were not paid to Iran for quite a long time and your so called PM (Mr. Sharif) was sitting there in the plane. This shows your countrie's credibility and your are talking about shooting an Indian plane. You better arrange the things to fulfill your basic necessities, if can't then shoot yourself with that bullet.

dnt worry they are in much safer place

they can be terrorists disguise in women , sponsored by pak gov like kandhar kaand

@R K HASTIR So do not go crying about when Indians are 'treated' in places like Australia!? Retrospect this.

@Shahryar only a sick minded person can give such comment. If the PM would not have noticed, the people like you would have certainly start crying that he doesn't care of his country men. Unfortunately a so called modern party followers has such a cynical mind

@Manoj Elango why wd we allow hi jacked plane to land so that all hi jack blame game could be on Pakistan again. keep the difference that was hi jacked and this one is regular passenger plane.where u ppl dont bother to let passengers sit in tansit lounge?

This is called Indian hospitality

Well it is an unfortunate incident and I on behalf of my country apologise....also can someone confirm if you dont have a visa of the country your aircraft has landed, I dun think u can disembark...anyways, I apologise regardless

pakistani air fore planes have made two emergency one in december last year and one in the last month in lucknow....We shouls ban their airlines flyin in our airspace. let them either fly over china to reach the south east asia or let their planes fly all the way with the costa line of india to reach Bangladesh and Myanmar. good Indian Authorities.

Keeping the passengers in the airplane for 14 hours is CRUEL and just plain TORTURE. The Indian authorities should be ashamed of this behavior and they have any decency, the Indian government needs to offer a public apology for this incident

@waseem what do you expect from a neighbour which you are tying to nuke all the time.

Fishy.Islamabad,Karachi, and few military airports are nearer to Lahore.Why should it come to N.Delhi.Hope hijacking not the case.

Sorry to know about it. It is very unfortunate that they could not be allowed be at the lounge for take rest at Delhi Airport. Also looking at the history , relationship, and security situations in the past, probably the security protocol did not allow them be at the high security buildings like Airports. You think about Mumbai attack incident, or Kandhaghar flight hijack issues, and handling about 200 passengers dismembering at an airport with hand-luggage is very risky situation for Indian security forces. But i know 14 hours is stressful, i feel sorry for them. I hope they might have received good food and drinking water supply from Airport services. But genuine cases like this India should consider, or divert the flight to Chandigarh, Pune or other low security areas to be allowed to be outside in Airport lounge until technical fault to be rectified. We take the blame partly for not showing 100% friendly gesture to Pakistani passengers to allow them to stay airport, but you have also understand how sincere Pakistan showing prosecuting the people involved in Mumbai attacks, like Lakhvi and others. May be Indian Security forces cannot take second chance, because the 168 lives we lost from Mumbai is too many already. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for the inconvenience. I personally apologize to all passengers, i hope situation and relationship will improve in the future.

It is normal practice to the passengers not allowed to wonder around the airport for security reasons on a surprise landing for any reasons. Please stop blaming Indian airport Authorities . Atleast they allowed the airplane in distress to land safely and had an ambulance waiting for an immergency landing. It could be a terrorist plow to blow a plane at an international airport, therefore you should not blame Indian authorities to move with caution. Please stop India bashing for no reason. Taking care of the passengers was the airline's responsibility and not of the airport authority .

@waseem you never did when the Indian airline was kidnapped ..they asked landing in Pakistan and your people switched the airport lights off..do you know this incident first ?????

@saad s Dubai allowed for refueling when Indian Airliens was hijacked ...and Pakistan switched off the light ...In Dubai atleset the women and childrens get off..It can be done on Pakistan itself...What happens in India is good ...at lease we made this airlines to park over there

inspite we should criticise india i think we should ask our CAA why they didnt allow plane to land at any Pak airports....

@Manoj Elango bro that situation was something else it was hijacking....dont know why you comparing something which has nothing to do with current incident.....

@waseem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Airlines_Flight_814 Due to extremely low fuel level, the aircraft requested an emergency landing in Lahore, Pakistan. Pakistan initially denied the request. Pakistan also shut down their air traffic services, thus effectively blackening the whole of Pakistan airspace for the Indian Airlines flight and switched off all lights at Lahore Airport.[4] With no help from ATC, Captain Sharan banked on his visual instincts and began descending on what he thought was a runway only to find out that it was a well-lit road and aborted landing the aircraft in time. On understanding that the only other option for the aircraft was to crash land, Lahore Airport switched on its lights and allowed the aircraft to land. Lahore airport officials refuelled the aircraft and allowed it to leave Lahore at 22:32 IST. Pakistani officials rejected the pilot's request to offload some women and children passengers due to tense relations with India.

@Sajjad Razza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Airlines_Flight_814 check for Landing in Lahore, Pakistan

Dawn pls get ure facts right. According to Times of India "According to sources at the airport, the Gulf Air aircraft GF 776 developed a snag and the flight landed in the capital at 11:30 pm on Sunday night. It took about 8 hours to process visa of all the passengers as their halt was not scheduled and the airport authorities weren't expecting so many foreign nationals, sources said. All the passengers of the aircraft were later accommodated in the transit lounge of the T3."

@Pakistani who said they were not allowed to be in lounge? They were not forced to be in plane for 14 hours! They were simply not allowed to leave the T3 terminal which is valid.

Shahid Afridi was very right about what he said after the World Cup 2011 semi-final that Indians do not have big hearts like Pakistanis. Time has proven him true.

There are only some moments in life when you can win the heart of someone. India unfortunately missed this opportunity.

@Manoj Elango Instead of firing in the air and and stupidly trying to defend what is not defendable, please come up with more concrete détails. We know this is your aman ki ashaa !!!

@A Shah Pakistanis are not accustomed to passing their nights on footpaths like Indians. I think , hey would have felt uncomfortable in Indian fairyland if they had opted to apply for asylum there.

Indians victimized passengers which included women and children and their logic is that terrorists and politics? Did any of these passengers did anything wrong to India? They are made to sit in the aircraft for 10 hours plus and the Indians here have the cheeks to show up for justifications! As a human I am ashamed that I live next to such people.

@Jehanzeb Prob they had not trust in fix at lahor

@Sajjad Razza You have no idea of how airlines works. It is always airline staff to call whether they want to take their passengers out of plane or not. Secondly this airline has not even allowed PIA to take their passengers back. So, better you understand the functionality how airline works before blaming India.

strange that the plane made it to Delhi that is farther than Lahore

@Ali You should first know how airlines work before jumping your guns to conclusion.

@Kanwarch You should first know how airlines work before jumping your guns to conclusion.

@Jehanzeb With Gulf Air's track record, the pilot probably got lost !

Maybe India had the spare part for the plane. However, the passengers should have been able to get off the plane and looked after by airport staff. It seems Indian people not that hospitable after all.

Shabby reporting , Passenger were allowed to disembark the plane and sit at Gate 15 ,Transit lounge at IGI T3 in Delhi.

Tell me something new. Today pakistani face same humiliation at all airports worldwide. Everyone call them terrorist behind their back. At some airports Pakistanis are force to do screening 3 to 4 times. Even Pakistani diplomats. Only Indian Muslim treated well

This is sad and disappointing indeed! Would Pakistan had done the same if it were indian passengers stranded in Pakistan? They talk of security protocol. what about the condition of the passengers trapped inside a fuselage for 14 hours?!! Was the airport security so frightened to let the passengers on ground? The flight wasn't even coming from Pakistan! The airport should have shown some courtesy (if they had any....)

@Kanwarch i we know what happened in IA planes when it kijacked by terorist first that plane land on lahore from which terorist getthe fuel and also the other terorist and thn fly to khandhar where thses terorist demand for hafeez saeed freedom and world know where hafeez saeed is know live so that time where humanity go even they kill one passenger

How come no Indiann media or any Indian here has not seen a failed terrorist attempt by ISI yet?

They must be feeling great after touching a truly democratic country going to be superpower from the regional power

It was extremely shameful how India treated these passengers. Even more shameful was the Indian trolls defending Indian government.....

but biryani was freely available what is the fuss about it

@Amit This kind of VIP treatment was rendered to only Devyani Khobragade and Shahrukh Khan , the Indian Diplomat and Bollywood actor at Washington airport. We have never heard any thing like this about Pakistanis or Pakistanis diplomats.

And some time before, few indian passengers were taken in to outside of airport for entire night by Pakistani authorities. What is the justification for this? On this incident, it is airline which takes a call to take their passengers out or not. If they request, local authorities would allow them. And this is what happened, big hearted indians have then gave passengers food, water and allowed them to use hotel and rest rooms.

I wonder why Pakistani nationals and its government always eager to blame India at the drop of the hat! First get to the facts and then come to some logical conclusion. India is always accommodative to its neighbors. Maldive is the very recent example when it suffered water shortage. You can not always blame innocent India for one or another reason of your own doing.

Ok here is the truth.. Gulf air enjoys good tech. Support atNew Delhi due to star alliance . Sorry pak doesn't have that ... Yes I know ... Indian authorities didn't do any security alert or gear up for a situation.. Given the plane was of Pak nationals .. The treatment was justified and fair. Mr PM must have nothing to do other than caring about minor incident of a plane. A foreign sec. Could have done the job.

@waseem What do expect? People from a terrorist harboring country and send terrorists on a daily basis should be allowed to enter the country without any backgroud checks available- Better be safe than sorry!

@anwar sadat and thats y we should keep the same treatment to all of u

@R Bhatia really and what woould u have done other wise.. psl explain

@ibrahim bashir PAF planes have NOT made emergency landings in India. Those were scheduled stops for scheduled flights. Get the facts right.

@Z Khan We prefer to land in Kabul rather than Islamabad

@Amit Is that why your President was frisked in the US and female diplomat strip-searched ?

@Mobashir Ahmad How would Indian or ANY authorities know if on board are 200 innocent or terrorists on board especially the flight came unexpected

I heard it got struck with lightening. I think they have made a decent choice to land in Dehli, but unfortunately the Indian authorities attitude is kinda weird

"Better to have problems on the ground than (glancing upward) up there." Comedian Don Rickles in the film Casino.

@Jehanzeb : it got struck with lightening near lahore airport and dehli airport is comparatively near to Islamabad airport and no doubt they have better technical handling ability than Islamabad airport. Apart from this the behavior of Indian authorities is weird. I think Gulf Air shall compensate the passengers.

@ibrahim bashir .... really? Than India should stop using Pakistan air space for flights to Europe,middle east and Russia n central Asia. also India uses Pakistan waters to get oil from middle east.

@Pakistani Australian government accepts more Indian migrants than any other group! Indians (Hindus) are treated very well to a point that Pakistanis living in Australian pass themselves as Indians! There are resturants in Melbourne that are marketed as INDIAN RESTURANT even thought they are owned by Pakistanis Retrospect!

@Amit ... all Indian leaders go thru tough security check up i. All airports in this world especially in Europe and US..the Sikhs are regularly harass at airports. Indian diplomat last year was forced to stripped by US marshals and that cause huge uproar in India. Do some research before you talk.

Wow…. PM has taken notice… hmmm made huge effort…. he will create a committee to investigate this & give him a report in 48 hours ;-)

Thank you India! With neighbours like these who needs enemies? Its been raining, snowing, halistorms all over Pakistan for the last few days thats why flight was diverted to Delhi. You couldn't even accomodate 200 passengers for a few hours?? International airline law requires that passengers be disembarked after max 4 hours! You kept them in the plane for 14 hours!! Shame on you!! Don't worry, if Indian airlines plane has to land in Pak for emergency, we'll tell you to go crash somewhere.

According to Indian newspaper reports, they were allowed to deplane and be in the transit lounge. Providing food etc is the responsibility of the airline, not of the airport. Pakistanis should speak to their brethren running Gulf Air to find out why they were not being treated the same as Arabs - after all Pakistans feel they are Arabs as well...

Right move by the Delhi airport authority we cant trust the plane carrying all the Pakistanis passengers..its also mysterious how this plane landed in Delhi for technical fault as it is far from Lahore..

@Rajni agreed, the aircraft should not have be allowed to land in India because of security risk, which may be lax security on the part of airline and the originating airport.

Incompetent flight crew, they flew to New Delhi bypassing atleast 3 international airports situated before that.

@Z Khan Well last time when an Air India flight landed in Pakistan for technical reason our Pilot denied your offer to disembark or even accepting food or water. so dont worry even if land We will not disembark

@Sane I agree with you. If the passengers were allowed to disembark the plane and wait in the transit lounge then it is absolutely fine and according to the normal procedures. However the decision of disembarkment takes place by the airliner and not the host airport authorities. Keeping in view that the airliner was trying to sort the technical fault with passenger onboard, the Indian authorities can not be blamed. In contrast if the airliner had requested disembarkment and the Indian authirities denied, then only the people concerned on the ground can comment and explain their decision why they refused disembarkment of passengers, with women and children and kept them onboard the plane for hours.

We are feel bad for the pakistanis stranded here in New Delhi , But our officiaol could not do much as per our law No embarkation is allowed in Indian airport if The International flight is not destined to that particular airport unless there is any threat to the safety of the passenger

If a plane has to make any emergency halt at an airport different from its destination, its the responsibility of airliner to provide accommodation. Without proper accommodation address, airport authority has every right to not allow the disembarkation. It happened to me once. Either Dawn doesn't know this or deliberately propagating wrong information.

This simply doesn't add up. If there was an emergency, why not land in the original destination Lahore then having to travel further eastward towards Delhi? This should be investigated thoroughly by Pakistani primer intelligence agencies.

@Imran are you an aviation engineer ?

I consider myself a very pro-indian Pakistani. Haha I love India but this is PATHETIC. Why? India is afraid of 200 Pakistani passengers in Dehli Airport who have already been checked in Bahrain. India the super power of South Asia. The Rising Tiger of sorts. The one with like 1000, 000 armed soldiers and 1000s of planes with dozens of billions of money in it's coffers is actually AFRAID that 200 unarmed (mostly labour since the flight was from Bahrain) would have actually been a Security Threat Buahhh!! My dear fellow south asians, security threat comes from people who you ARE unaware of like people crossing the boats, ditching indian navy and committing terrorist actions in Mumbai. Not from these stranded passangers. I mean Indians have eyes and security equipment. They could've RESCREENED the passengers for threats instead of abandoning thousands of year old South Asian Morality of never refusing to help stranding people!

NEW DELHI: Around 220 passengers of a Bahrain-Lahore flight were stranded at IGI for 24 hours after their flight developed a technical snag. According to sources at the airport, the Gulf Air aircraft GF 776 developed a snag and the flight landed in the capital at 11:30 pm on Sunday night. It took about 8 hours to process visa of all the passengers as their halt was not scheduled and the airport authorities weren't expecting so many foreign nationals, sources said. All the passengers of the aircraft were later accommodated in the transit lounge of the T3. Sources at the airport said that because of the incessant rains through the day on Monday the aircraft couldn't be mended in time. All the passengers are reported to fly out of the airport at 4 am on Tuesday.

The people enjoyed Delhi for a while through the windows...

India should have allowed pakistanis and provided lodging , food at least. These are basics for diplomacy .

Caption reads Gulf Air flight but we see an Ethiopian Airlines plane and then in the background a MD-11 which does not even belong to Gulf Air, since the only tri engined jet Gulf Air ever operated was the Lockheed Tristar L-1011

All Indians: Here is the BIG difference between your so called "shiny and civilised" democracy and Pakistan. On July 9, 2012, an Air India plane enroute from Abu Dhabi landed in Nawabshah Pakistan with technical fault. Pakistani govt and authorities offered full assistance to passengers and crew but guess what, they resfused. Below is an excerpt from Dawn http://www.dawn.com/news/733014/pilot-refuses-to-allow-passengers-to-disembark-indian-plane-leaves-nawabshah-13-hours-after-emergency-landing "As a gesture of goodwill, the authorities offered food, drinks, and all possible facilities to the unscheduled guests, but the pilot politely turned down the offer and said they had everything they needed on board and would prefer to wait in the aircraft. Later, the pilot asked for water and bottled water was immediately provided." Pakistani govt even offered transit visas to all the passengers but it was refused. They even refused food. Wow. I am sure there were children on the plane as well. What did they think that the food will be poisoned. Such losers. Maybe Pakistan govt should have refused landing to the stricken aircraft instead of getting the nasty, pathetic and holier than thou childish attitude from the pilot and the Indian govt BUT that would make Pakistanis be cheap like Indians so I am glad Pakistan offered full assistance. Next time, please go look in the mirror before lecturing Pakistanis.

Times of INdia Around 220 passengers of a Bahrain-Lahore flight were stranded at IGI for 24 hours after their flight developed a technical snag. According to sources at the airport, the Gulf Air aircraft GF 776 developed a snag and the flight landed in the capital at 11:30 pm on Sunday night. It took about 8 hours to process visa of all the passengers as their halt was not scheduled and the airport authorities weren't expecting so many foreign nationals, sources said. All the passengers of the aircraft were later accommodated in the transit lounge of the T3. Sources at the airport said that because of the incessant rains through the day on Monday the aircraft couldn't be mended in time. All the passengers are reported to fly out of the airport at 4 am on Tuesday.

@Mobashir Ahmad to check possible terrorists infiltrating into India, with pakistan you never know.

@ashok "It is normal practice to the passengers not allowed to wonder around the airport for security reasons on a surprise landing for any reasons." Normal practice in civilised countries, which India is not, is to disembark the passengers specially if there are families with small children. You put the passengers securely and safely in an airport lounge and offer them food, water and facilities until the alternate arrangements are made. This plane was not hijacked. It had a technical fault.

@Mike "How could they let them embark? What if there were some terrorists hiding among the passengers?" Wow. Indians are more paranoid than a Chihuahua in heat. This was a passenger flight by Gulf Air from Bahrain. Just admit that Indians are cheap skates and move on.

@Reality All the passengers of the aircraft were later accommodated in the transit lounge of the T3. T3 is ranked 2nd best airport in the world in 2012, 2013, 2014

Just checked flight history on flightradar24.com Really Strange. Pilot circled over lahore before diverting to New Delhi. Should have diverted to Multan or Faisalabad. The flight landed in delhi on 01/03/2015 around 10:45 PM pakistan standard time in New Delhi and not yesterday i.e 02/03/2015.

@ashok "Atleast they allowed the airplane in distress to land safely" FYI .. this is expected of any civilised country but I guess India ain't one of them so we should be thankful to India for this humane act.

A few months a go, Indian airlines plane did a simmilar landing in Pakistan, they were given decent treatment, even indian media reported it, this is how india repays us

@abhas so much appreciate your comments. I wish if we all have similar mindset (both sides) which is unfortunately lacking

@waseem "The benefits of having a good neighbor" In fact it is the curse of having a bad reputation.

@Abhi Thats the responsibility of Gulf Air

@lk "Providing food etc is the responsibility of the airline, not of the airport." Thanks for confirming that Indians are so cheap that they can't even feed a few stranded passengers.

When Indian airlines was hijacked by the Pakistanis, it was not even allowed to land in Pakistan just to save themselves from embarrassment and discard any involvement. They did not cared about the passengers at that time. Now sitting in plane for longer time is hurting them so much that too when India had no fault in whole incident. There are many issues related security, visas, accommodation etc.. And yes its Pakistan, so every country is always over cautious.. thats a reputation u have created in the world.

Sad They should've fecilitated the already troubled people. Very SAD...No India comments on this I believe yet for everyhting else even the internal situation of Pakistan & matters they have a comment ???? & suggestions ??....Yet on their own short Comings they dont ?

an indian plane had landed in nawabshah, Pakistan few months back and they were offered to disembark, but the pilot himself refused. below is the Times of Indiaa report on that http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Air-India-plane-lands-in-Delhi-false-alarm-led-aircraft-to-land-in-Pakistan-officials-say/articleshow/14776785.cms

Long live so called aman kis asha.

@Sajjad Razza Totally agree. This is common curtsey. This was great chance to win some hearts. India blew it.

@gauku "When Indian airlines was hijacked by the Pakistanis. it was not even allowed to land in Pakistan" 1) Your statement is silly. If Pakistan hijacked the plane then why would they not allow to land it in Pakistan LOL 2) The plane was hijacked and was not stricken with a technical fault. 3) It was allowed to land at Lahore airport. Fuel was provided then it was asked to leave. You are comparing apples with oranges. Maybe you should compare this Gulf Air landing in Delhi with Air India plane landing in Nawabshah, Pakistan in July 2012.

@Nas Hey we agree. More curtsey should be shown

i think the Amritsar international airport would've been closer than the Delhi one!

Appropriate action taken by Delhi Airport Authority for the suspected terrorists of a rough State...!!!

@Reality in an emergency you don't think of where you will find a spare part. You land at the nearest airport.

@Mehdi Raza Mamdani Please get your facts right befor jumping to conclusion

@Sajjad Razza They did. Accommodated them in transit lounge. Dawn get facts right

@Manoj Elango Also allowed the use of lounge

@Kanwarch I live in the USA and few years back I experienced the same treatment in Lahore. My flight from Dubai to New Delhi was diverted to Lahore due to fog in Delhi. Our plane stayed on Tarmac from 6 AM to 1 Pm . People were not allowed to deplane. I remember feeling such frustration and anger then. I can feel what people felt yesterday prisoned in the plane for 12 hours in Delhi. Both countries need to grow up fast.

@Factual Get facts right.They were in terminal and not plane

stranded? camon, they get to see India !! well some of it, but how many just land in India? exactly !!!

@Jehanzeb Yes it is quite possible airline did not trust the ground staff in Pakistan.

@Z Khan : remember our indian air line flight which was hijacked and landed in pak before being diverted to khandhar? remember Pan -AM flight where an Indian Air hostess sacrificed her life to save your Pakistani brothers ? YOU NEVER REMEMBER YOUR DEEDS or others good deeds

@Abhi Indians did provide hospitality in the lounge

@Rajni what about the thousands of Indians pilgrims coming to Pakistanevery year,they are bigger threat to pakistanis

@Challenger, who knows, the passengers were unarmed. Think about the scenario: a Muslim Company Aircraft, coming from Muslim country, going to Pakistan, requested landing in India at the world class airport. It was obvious to suspect any kind of miss happening (e.g. terrorist attack on foreigners, as was did in Mumbai). Pakistan should be thank India for allowing landing the aircraft and provide food and water at IG T3 lounge after 8 hrs. ...still complaining and abusing...strange...

@Naseer Millions are coming from Pakistan to visit India every year. Just check the state of your own government data. More Pakistani is visiting India than other way round.

Stupid we Indians. We could have got the repairs of the airport done. Most of them were plumber, masons and carpenters.

Guys, please look at the map if you have one. As far as I can see, you have to cross Pakistan to come to India. So why cross all of Pakistan and make a landing in Delhi. Explanation please!!!

Something is not correct... If it is technical fault then why the plane coming from Baharin landed in New delhi which far and out of the way.. Also if it is bad weather then how come an additional flight suggested by PM Nawaz sharif can take off and fetch back the passengers which the original plane cannot? There is something wrong in the news.....

@adnan maybe you need to look at the map and then make comments

Will anyone from Civil Aviation Authority or any aviation solve this mystery of diversion.

this goes to show the stubbornness of Indians who making negative comments here. had this happened to Indians they would have opened the entire book on aviation laws.

@Nas Sure the passengers should have been allowed to stay in the airport. But before throwing the blame why not wait for the comments from concerned authorities.

Just checked Times of India, it's reporting that transit visas were issued and passengers accommodated in the airpor. Who is telling the truth? Something fishy Delhi will be out of way as per the route.

Bahrain has very strong ties with India as well as Pakistan,because of history & culture,more than 350000 Indians live in Bahrain,and Gulf Airline is owned by Bahrain.Technical fault occurred and plane safely landed at Delhi,it was for Gulf Airline to assist passengers as much as possible ,but unfortunately that was not done,hence the other way could be a compensation to each passenger by Gulf Airline.

@Vineet .It is shorter to fly the Great Circle route than a straight line due to the circumference of the earth being so much greater at the equator than near the poles. Therefore shortest distance on the map is not the shortest. Gulf airlines always flies over India to arrive at Lahore. The plane was hit by lightning during flight.Please ask aviation authorities in India if the flight had the clearance to fly over India.

The aircraft developed some technical fault as a result of the lightning strike while in the air. Gulf Air technical facilities were in India. The delay is possible since no airline customer handling staff was available. Gulf Air may have tried to avoid catering them due expense for over 200 passengers, so a rolling delay was accepted as a cover.

the treatment given fit the profile.

@Pakistani There is a saying look before u leap, similarly read and see the facts before u say something. In the video above of Dawn news one passenger said, we were moved to the lounge and served dinner. Take care

Read many of the comments from both the sides. Why this matter is given India vs. Pakistan colour? We need to find whether right procedure is followed by Airline staff on ground, the immigration staff at airport. If they followed the procedure than they are not at fault. From the human and heart point of view we might have our complains and which will be valid as its a punishment for passenger no matter what age group or gender they are. If countries put some human convenience factor while writing their procedure during emergency matters than it will be more acceptable. Some time due to absence of procedure, the authorities don't want to make decision and that affect the passenger badly. I hope we can get real feedback from the passenger to know the truth.

It is a classic example of distrust between two neighbours! Hope our governments will understand this and will promote people to people contact in future so that the common people need not suffer.