New York: A Pakistan couple are suing
American Airlines after they were handcuffed and escorted out
of a plane based on a phone call with a hijacking threat,
which turned out to be a hoax.
"The only reason police went to them is because their
names were Maheen Ghani Taseer and Shahbaz Ali Taseer," Joel
Siegal, their lawyer, was as quoted as saying by the Daily
Mail.
"They were singled out and treated as the vilest
terrorists," he said.
The Daily Mail reported that Shahbaz is the son of
Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province who was
assassinated by an Islamic extremist in January
The incident occurred on August 19 last year, and the
case was transferred from the San Francisco Superior Court to
the federal court this week.
The couple were vacationing in the US and were heading
to New York to catch a flight back to Pakistan. They are
currently in Pakistan.
In a statement, American Airlines said that it would
move to dismiss the claims.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 13:06