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Kathmandu,Friday January 28, 2000 Magh 14th, 2056.
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Hijack
probe report made public Panel implicates 18 TIA officials
-By a Post
Reporter
KATHMANDU,
Jan 27 The investigation committee
formed to look into the alleged security lapses at TIA on the day of
Indian Airlines hijacking has recommended that the government take
strong action against 18 officials posted at the airport.
“If
officials at TIA had been adequately vigilant, the hijacking could
have been possibly avoided,” Minister of Civil Aviation Bijaya
Gachchhedar told reporters today after he read out parts of the
commission report.
The
offending officials include six Civil Aviation Authority officials,
including the TIA General Manager Medini Prasad Sharma; nine security
personnel including chief of the airport Superintendent of Police
Binod Singh; and three National Investigation Department officials,
including Deputy Superintendent of Police Damodar Das Shrestha.
Eleven
of the 18 officials indicted for the hijacking are non-gazetted.
“Procedures
required for the strong departmental action, which may include firing
to filing criminal cases, will start from today,” Gachchhedar said
at a press conference here Thursday.
The
report, however, has stated that the security arrangements at the
country’s only international airport on December 24 were in keeping
with the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards.
Gachchhedar
said the investigation committee has also concluded that the five
hijackers -- A.A. Shekh, S.A. Kaji, Jahar Ibrahim Mistri, Said Sahid
Akhtar and Rajesh Gopal Verma -- could have slipped into the aircraft
through the regular route which is followed by every departing
passenger.
He
said, “While their (the hijackers’) flight coupons and embarkation
cards show that they are Indians, the developments that followed after
the hijacking do not rule out chances that they registered under fake
names and nationality.”
According
to the probe report, there are no adequate evidences to establish that
the hijackers were carrying sophisticated weapons and that they had
entered the IC 814 from Kathmandu. The only death - of Indian national
Rupin Katyal - aboard the ill-fated flight has been attributed to
knife wounds.
The
report maintains that the porous Indo-Nepal border has become
vulnerable to terrorist activities and the possibilities of criminals
from third countries (with similar appearances) abusing the open
border were high.
The
Minister, however, remained silent when asked whether the open border
should be regulated in view of such developments.
The
New Delhi-bound IC 814 was hijacked 40 minutes after the aircraft took
off form Kathmandu. An emergency cabinet meeting held immediately
after the hijacking on December 24 had formed a high-powered
five-member investigation committee headed by former police chief Hem
Bahadur Singh.
The
committee was asked to submit its findings detailing the circumstances
leading to the hijacking - first international flight to be hijacked
in Nepal’s history - within 15 days. The report was submitted on
Monday, a month after the hijacking.
When
asked to elaborate the recommendations made by the committee,
Gachchhedar said other major recommendations range from updating metal
detectors, x-ray and other devices at the airport to removing
duty-free shops and restaurants from the departure lounge. The
committee has also recommended a fool-proof partition wall to separate
incoming and outgoing passengers.
“We
have already started the updating works in line with the
recommendations,” Gachchhedar claimed.
According
to him, the long term recommendations among others include, imparting
special type of training to all the employees -- such as security
personnel, customs and immigration officials -- staffed at the
airport.
He
said that the probe report is silent on the alleged involvement of a
Nepali national in the hijacking, and the possibility of the hijackers
slipping into the Indian Airlines aircraft from the airport tarmac,
shortly after arriving on a Pakistan International Airlines flight
from Karachi.
“That’s
not possible,” he said when asked to comment on a claim made by
India’s Zee News which telecast in graphic details the strong
possibility of the hijackers going aboard the Indian Airlines plane
after arriving on a PIA aircraft earlier on the same day, hinting that
anything is possible at Kathmandu airport.
While
parts of the much awaited report submitted by the investigation
committee was publicised today, more will be announced “with the
cabinet’s approval on different phases on coming days”, said
Gachchhedar.
He
said he would not rule out lapses on the part of Indian Airlines
officials.
The
hijacked plane made stops in India, Pakistan and the United Arab
Emirates before landing in Afghanistan’s Kandahar on December 25. On
New Year’s eve, the hijackers freed the remaining 155 hostages in
exchange for three Kashmiri militants imprisoned in India.
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