NATIONAL 1 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Double Talk

The report triggers contradictions giving clean chit to airport's security while recommending action against officials

By A CORRESPONDENT

The contents of the 63 page report on Tribhuvan International Airport's security system -- which the government revealed on January 27 -- are contradictory.

On the one hand the report says that none of the Nepalese were involved in hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 that took place after the Airbus entered Indian aerospace taking-off from TIA on December 24. "None of the staff-member at the TIA has been found to be involved in the incident deliberately or under any allurement," the report said.

While on the other, it was the same report that recommended strong departmental action against the officials who were on duty on the day when the hijack took place. Disclosing the report, Biajaya Kumar Gachhadar, Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, said that the government will take action against 18 officials.

TIA : No cause for worry

The list includes TIA's former top brasses like Medini Prasad Sharma, the international airport's now replaced General Manager, Binod Singh, the then airport police chief, among others. "Three of them are Department Chiefs whose alertness could have avoided hijacking," said the minister. "The action against the officials could mean suspension or sacking from their job or trying them on criminal charges."

The recommendation to take action against the 18 officials does not stand with the same report's claim that nothing went wrong at the TIA on the day when the hijack took place. According to the report, all the mechanisms in the departure network at the TIA were functioning smoothly.

Yet, the report maintained that all the hijackers got through the normal channel to board the Indian Airlines aircraft. It is silent on how did the weapons, later used by the hijackers, got on the board. The report also outstepped its mandate disclosing the names of the hijackers -- ditto published by the Indian media.

Earlier, when Hem Bahadur Singh, who headed the high level committee formed to investigate, submitted the document to the government on January 24, he had said that his mandate was only to find out the security arrangements at the TIA. "We do not have the mandate to investigate about the hijackers."

"It is an unjust report," said a press release issued by Nepal Air Traffic Control Association earlier last week. "On one hand the report says that the internal security system at TIA is according to standard prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organization and that none of the staff at TIA were involved in helping the hijackers get through, while on the other it has recommended strong departmental action against 18 officials."

The double talk on the part of the high level investigation committee has sent wrong signals, observers say, that too at a time when Indian Airlines continues to suspend its flights -- following the decision of the Indian government to do so after the hijack took place.

Despite its clean chit to TIA's security arrangement, the report's claim that the hijack could have been avoided had the Department chiefs acted alertly could well be a "reason" for the Indian Airlines not yet to resume its Kathmandu-bound flights. The Indian national flag carrier's decision, however, does not conform to India's oft-repeated official version that it is Nepal's trusted friend.

Having its inbound flights still suspended, the Indian Airlines has put India's untiring claim -- that Nepal and its immediate southern neighbor enjoy an exemplary and historical relations -- to a litmus-test.

Even as Indian Airlines has canceled its flights to Kathmandu after the hijack, more than one dozen other international airlines, including renowned airliners like Thai, Singapore Airlines, continue to fly in. And that too with increased frequency.