Indian-origin man arrested for fighting with co-passenger on US flight
New York, Jul 4 (PTI): A 21-year-old Indian-origin man has been arrested and charged after allegedly attacking a fellow passenger on a flight to Miami from Philadelphia, authorities said.
Ishaan Sharma has been charged with battery and is facing a USD 500 bond, according to jail records.
A report in WSVN.com said that Sharma allegedly started a fight with Keanu Evans during the flight. Evans said the fight started for no reason.
The video of the fight also went viral on social media. Upon landing on Monday night, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies immediately handcuffed Sharma and took him into custody. Officials said he had a cut on his face and needed stitches.
The report added that cell phone footage showed Evans and Sharma in the middle of the fight as other passengers urged them to stop. “Let him go,” said an unidentified passenger. “Stop, let him go.”
A flight attendant reportedly also tried to break up the fight, but was unsuccessful. "Sir, you have to sit down,” a flight attendant, seen on video, tells the men.
Evans told 7News that he was attacked while simply returning to his seat and he did nothing to provoke Sharma.
“What I hate is that the video doesn’t capture what started the whole thing, you know?” said Evans. “It only captures me defending myself.”
Evans said, “He was doing some, like, dark laugh like, ha ha ha ha ha. And he was saying things like, you, you puny mortal man, if you challenge me, it will result in your death.”
Evans said he then went to use the restroom and told the flight attendants what was going on. The flight attendants told him to push the button for assistance if the argument continues. Evans said he pushed the button, the media report said.
“He kept threatening me with death,” said Evans in the report.
“That’s what made me get up and press the button above me and I just turned around and I looked at him and I responded to him. A lot was going on, and immediately he just got up and he put his forehead on my forehead like he was challenging me.”
Evans said the situation quickly escalated and Sharma was “looking at me very angrily and we’re looking eye to eye, forehead to forehead, and then he just grabs me by the throat and just starts choking me. At that moment it was, you know, fight or flight responses kick in. I’m in a tight, confined space on an aircraft, and all I can do is just defend myself”.
“If you see on my face, I’ve got some scratches from him,” said Evans.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
