By IANS,
Bangalore : India’s Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna arrived here safely Friday from Dubai by a United Arab Emirates (UAE) flight after his previous flight to New Delhi had to make an emergency landing in Karachi late Thursday due to bad weather in the national capital.
“Krishna took Emirates flight EK-564 from Dubai at 03.30 (local time) and arrived here at 09.10 IST. He is fine and resting,” his official adviser told IANS here.
Krishna was returning to India after curtailing his four-day official visit to Brasilia on hearing about the tragic death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in a chopper crash Wednesday.
“The original schedule was to reach Hyderabad from New Delhi Friday morning to pay homage to the departed leader. Since the flight from Dubai to New Delhi could not land Thursday night, Krishna flew to Bangalore, as there was no direct flight to Hyderabad from Dubai in the early hours,” the official said.
When Krishna’s UAE flight to New Delhi was denied permission to land due to inclement weather, it was diverted to Karachi at 10.00 p.m. Thursday. From Karachi, it was flown back to Dubai an hour later after re-fuelling.
“We returned to Dubai around midnight (local time) and took the flight to Bangalore three hours later at 03.30 a.m., as there was no direct flight to Hyderabad,” recalled the official, who had accompanied Krishna.
Though Krishna was planning to rush to Pulivendala in Kadapa district for Reddy’s last rites, inclement weather and rain in the Rayalaseema region prevented him from flying to the venue by a chopper.
“Bad roads and long distance (about 250 km) have also prevented Krishna from going to Pulivendala by road in time for the last rites. Krishna plans to meet Reddy’s bereaved family at Kadapa or in Hyderabad Saturday,” the official said.
Krishna attended the India-Brazil joint commission meeting Aug 31 and participated in the ministerial meeting of the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) countries Sep 1 to finalise the agenda of the IBSA summit of the heads of the state in November.
The first IBSA summit was held in Brasilia in 2006, followed by the Johannesburg summit in 2007. New Delhi hosted the third IBSA summit last year.