COVER STORY (Spotlight Weekly)

IA PLANE HIJACKING

Full Of Mysteries

As contradictions surround the Indian Airlines plane hijacking drama, real motive of the hijackers is still unkown. The relatives of hostages in the hijacked New Delhi bound IC-814 plane are losing their patience as on-going picture looks still grim

By KESHAB POUDEL

The drama of hijacking of Indian Airlines New Delhi bound IC-814 unfolded when some passengers in the plane on Friday (Dec. 24) afternoon suddenly asked cabin crew when the plane was flying over the Indian city of Lucknow to divert the aircraft from its regular route. From the first day till writing of this story on Tuesday evening, the drama has become more and more entangled.

Although an Indian team has already started negotiations with hijackers in Kandahar - southern Afghan city where the plane has been grounded for more than two days, nothing substantial has come out even after several rounds of talks regrding the release of hostages.

Crowded airport : More safe room needed

When the news of hijacking came on air on Friday evening, it sent shock waves in the Nepalese capital which had not encoutered such incident in its 50-year-long history of aviation.

"We got the information regarding the hijacking after the plane had reached above India's Lucknow city," said Medini Prasad Sharma, general manager at Tribhuwan International Airport.

From the very beginnig, the story of the plane hijacking has remained mysterious. Flight IC-814 was behind schedule and it took off at 4:27 p. m. on Friday. The plane was orginally scheduled to fly at 1:30 p.m.

Like the hijacking drama, the circumstances of post hijacking period are equally mysterious and full of contradictory information.

Motives of some Indian media are certainly dubious as they spent all their time portraying Nepal as a safe haven for terrorists. It seemed that Indian media had a well-planned propoganda to discredit Nepal.

The role of Indian media, many see, as anti-Nepali during the whole episode. "I don't think a Nepalese can commit any harmful act against Indians as their brothers fought in Kargil war hand in hand with the Indians," said a retired Indian Gurkha soldier. " Every society has bunch of bad and good people but one cannot accuse the entire nation."

The post hijacking drama has been full of fabulous stories and exaggerated propaganda but what it missed was genuine humanitarian concern for families of the hostages. No body seemed bothered toward the plight of the young wife of Rupin Katyal, an Indian honeymooner, who was killed by the hijakcers.

Although senior Indian ministers have time and again expressed confidence that the hostages will be rescued without harm, panick and frustration among relatives still continue.

"The passengers will be rescued without any harm," said Pramod Mahajan, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs of India, on Monday night.

The incident of hijacking and aftermath showed that Nepal has to learn lessons from this episode. Experts say that the time is now ripe to start negotiations with Indian officials to introduce identity card for Indian and Nepali nationals while going from one country to another.

The campaign of Indian media, particularly that of Zee News, showed that there might be some political implications of the hijacking on Nepal. With possible involvement of Muslim separatists, the focus of hijakcig has now shifted to Nepal.

Due to nearly 1750 km long open border and free movement of citizens between India and Nepal, the possibility of entering of miscreants can't be denied.

At a time when situation is so fluid and media are harping on baseless accusations, no body knows details about what is happening to the hijackd plane. It seems uncertain about what will be the fate of 160 hostages including eight Nepalese aboard the plane.

Meanwhile, anti-Nepalese prpoganda seems to be the one-point agenda of Indian media."

From the first breaking news of hijacking to follow-up stories, one after another the information related to the indentity of hijaackers have been contradictory. Even hijackers have not announced any kind of demand directly with the Indian government or officials.

Foreign media quoting a Taliban minister disclosed that the hijackers demanded the release of an Islamic scholar, Cleric Maulana Masood Azhar and his colleagues now in Indian prisons. Reports of their links with Muslim separatists in Indian Kashmir could not be immediately established, reports said.

Nepalese Passengers in The IA plane

1. S. Shrestha
2. R. Pathak
3. H. Shrestha
4. G. Tamrakar
5. R. B. Dahal
6. S. Dhital
7. L. P. Chapagain
8. J. L. Shrestha

Although some Indian media are trying to prove that Nepal is being used as a base by the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, and accuse Nepal's security lapses in the recent drama, the Nepalese officials flatly reject it.

X-ray : is it functioning ?

"Our security system at TIA is at par with international standard," said Bijaya Kumar Gacchedar, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation. " So there is no question of security lapses. It is premature to blame Nepal before the investigation committee comes up with its report." The government has already formed a five-member probe committee headed by former chief of Nepal Police, Hem Bahadur Singh.

Every hour new developments give way to old speculations in the on-going hijacking drama. Indian media reports tried to prove the involvment of a Nepali citizen and accused Gyanendra Tamarakar, as one of the hostages.

Tamarakar's family, however, ruled out the involvment of Tamrakar in the incident. "He is a businessman and he does not have anything to do with the hijacking," said his brother.

Intrestingly, Tamrakar had transfered his ticket to Indian Airlines after he missed RNAC's morning flight to Delhi on Friday because of delays in getting customs clearance for his cargo of pashmina shwals.

"Accusations against Tamrakar were made following the failure to prove the role of so-called Islamic Salvation Front, Sikh separatists and even Osama Bin Laden in the entire episode," said an analyst.

Senior Nepalese officials too don't accept such charges. "There is only remote possibility of the involvment of a Nepali citizen in the IA hijacking," said foreign minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat talking with media persons on Monday evening.

Not only Indian officials, even prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai is also expressing contradictory remarks about the incident. When his ministers are defending security systems at the TIA and other issues, prime minister Bhattarai admitted security lapses while talking to his Indian counterpart, A. B. Vajpayee, on Friday. Prime minsiter Bhattarai who avoided Nepalese media, spared no time hobnobbing with the Indian media.

Security checking : Passport please !

Contradictions could also be seen on the hijackers part. In the history of plane hijacking, this is for the first time when identity of hijackers have not been revealed even after five days. Initial information only reveal that hijakers are people of South Asian origin as they can speak Hindi. The passengers released by the hijakers also gave contradictory reports. According to Usha Kaul, a released passenger of the hajacked plane, the hijakers spoke Hindi also.

Other mysterious part is that even after five days of hijacking, no body knows about the exact number of hijackers. Some even suspected that it could be an under-cover intelligence operation.

Talking to media persons, Indian foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said that the hijackers were presseing their demands through second and third hand sources.

Although negotiations between hijackers and Indian officials have begun in Khandahar on Monday, the situation is still unpredictable as they haven't been able to break the ice.

There is also controversy about why the plane was allowed to fly from Amritsar. To find out facts, Indian government has set up a commission to enquire how the hijacked plane was allowed to fly from Amritsar Airport.

The hijacking and aftermath reveals the geographical vulnerablity of Nepal in South Asian politics. Although it does not have major terrorism problems, it has to face the consequences of regional rivalry.

Some of the news dispatched from the Kathmandu were rejected by Indian officials. Indian Airlines officials have very strong reservations over the false publicity regarding their suspension.

From death of the number of passengers to the identity of hijackers, every bit of information revealed have different stories.

Indian TV report said four people were shot dead by the hijackers when the plane was refuelling at the Amritsar aiport. Only one death was confirmed later and that to by stabbing.

Even involvment of Osma Bin Laden was reported in the hijacking drama but it is yet to be confirmed.

"We had directed the security personnel to take stern measures after one of the embassies here tipped us off about possible action of Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire now living in Afghanistan" said Narayan Singh Pun, assistant minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

When the hijackers asked the pilot to divert the plane to Afganistan, Indian media even carried a statement supposedly issued by Laden. Later, it was denied.

The type of weapons used by hijackers is also unconfirmed. "The reports that hijackers were carrying sophisticated weapons have been proved bseless. Neither us nor any other authority have confirmed it," said Gacchedar, minister of Civil Aviation.

Indian reports claimed citing the air-crew that hijackers were armed with dynamite, assault rifles, pistols and hand grenades. Gachhedar's arguent was supported by one of the passengers who was released in Dubai claiming that the hijakers had only knives.

One of the interesting things related to hijacking is that thay have made all the communication through the pilot for the first three days and they had not come for direct contact.

No body knows what type of weapons the hijackers used to abduct the plane. It was widely reported in Indian media that the hijakers had AK-47 rifles and some grenades.

At a time when the officials are defending the security sytem, it is mysterious to read the statments regarding weapons. "The security is very much in keeping with the ICAO ( International Civil Aviation Organiazation) guidelines," said Pun. "We don't know whether the weapons were loaded from Kathmandu or elsewhere."

First 12 hours of hijacking were totally mysterious as the plane asked Lahore airport authorities for permission to land but the airport denied permission. Then it was diverted and safely landed at Amritsar and it again took off for Lahore.

Had the plane not been allowed to fly from Amritsar, the situation might have been differnet. Indian newspapers quoted prime minister Vajpayee as reprimanding the leader of the crisis team dealing with the hijakcers for allowing the aircrat to leave Amritsar.

Indian Airline officials in Kathmandu defended that they did their job as usual and issued the tickets as per their rule.

Indian media earlier reported that Indian Airlines officials in Kathmandu were suspended following their suspicious role in issuing the tickets and boarding passes.

In the meantime all Indian airlines flight to Kathmandu have been suspended. This may look to be a hasty decision. Security at Tribhuwan airport is not as lax as it has been made to be. Unless the real truth comes out, figments of imagination will only contribute to tangle the issue.

Security At the TIA Serious lapses?

The hijacking drama raises questions about the security at the country's only international airport

Is Tribhuvan International Airport equipped with modern security facility? "Yes," said majority of security and aviation officials. Then, what went wrong to New Delhi bound Indian Airlines jet which was hijacked by some miscreants.

Even after four days, nobody was sure if Nepal's only International Aiport was safe. The government officials do not agree and claim that TIA has a history of total safety.

TIA : How safe is it ?

The hijacking should be a big lesson for Nepal. The National Civil Aviaition Security Committee, headed by the Civil Aviation minister, had an emergency meeting as soon as the news of the hijacking became public. But nobody knew if such a committee was in place earlier, and if so, if it met regularly to assess the security at the country's airports.

One more aspect is the need of constituting and training anti-terrorist commandos. Officials have not said anything whether Royal Nepalese Army and Nepal Police have such commandos and if they can come into action without losing a minute.

While talking of airport security, from immigration to duty free shops, there can be seen several loopholes. Even after security clearance, there are resturants and duty free shops. The government has stopped operations of private duty free shops and money exchange counters till further notice. "There is a need to review the whole scenario of security at the TIA," said an expert.

Experts suggest that there should be provisions of incentives to the people manning such sensitive areas. There should also be a system of reward and punishment. Coordination between different agencies and clear spelling out of one's duties and responsibilities is a must.

Tribhuwan International Airport has 350-strong police force who are deployed to maitain security. Besides, staff of the National Investigation Department and Special Police are also deployed at the TIA.

For final security of the passangers, x-rays and all other modern facilities are there. There are baggage x-ray, hand held metal detector, walk through meteal detectors and RAO Police. Airlines have their own security.

Now, the question is: whether officials will wake up to the gravity of the situation or forget it as soon as the entire drama subsides.