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Nachiketa's sister to meet President

Shireen in Hyderabad

Indian Air Force Flight Lieutenant K Nachiketa, who was 'captured' by Pakistan on Thursday, hails from Hyderabad.

The MiG-27 flown by Nachiketa had developed engine trouble and he was forced to eject from the aircraft before it burst into flames off the Line of Control. He is reported 'missing' since then.

Nachiketa's relatives are a worried lot. "All of us are anxious to know about his fate," said his uncle P S Sastry.

"He spoke to me on Wednesday night and assured my family that everything is okay and there is no need to worry," Sastry revealed. Another uncle Purnachandra Rao said, "We pray to god that he would return safely."

Nachiketa, incidentally, turns 25 on Sunday.

His relatives said that, for Nachiketa, flying fighter planes was a childhood dream.

He joined the Indian Air Force through a Combined Defence Service examination. After graduating from the National Defence Academy, he underwent his training as a pilot at the Air Force Academy at Dindigul near Hyderabad.

He was commissioned and posted at the Bidar air force station in neighbouring Karnataka. He also had a brief stint at Jodhpur in Rajasthan. He was posted at Adampur air base recently.

Hailing from a Brahmin family from the coastal district of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, Nachiketa was born in Hyderabad.

He had his schooling in New Delhi. His parents have settled in Gunrock Enclave in Secunderabad.

His father Kambhampati Ramakrishna Sastry retired as a senior official in the Central Water Commission. It was hardly three weeks ago that Ramakrishna Sastry, who underwent a by-pass heart surgery in February, moved to Adampur with his wife Mahalakshmi.

Apart from Nachiketa, Ramakrishna Sastry and Mahalakshmi have two daughters. Nachiketa came to Hyderabad on a month-long leave in February to make arrangements for his younger sister Sandhya's marriage. His elder sister Valli Maya stays at Sikh Village, Secunderabad.

Sandhya left for Delhi on Friday to call on President K R Narayanan with a plea to take all steps for the release of her brother by Pakistan.

"The Indian authorities have not confirmed the Pakistani declaration about his prisoner of war status. We are hopeful that Nachiketa will return home safely soon," Ramakrishna Sastry told his sister Rama Devi over phone from Adampur on Friday, it is learnt.

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