Essay On THE HIJACKING OF I.C. 814
Indian Aircraft Hijacked
The Indian Airlines aircraft 814 took off at 4.25 p.m. on Friday dated 24-12-1999 from Tribhun Das Airport, Kathmandu, with 178 passengers and a crew of 11. Soon after five men announced that the plane was in their control. No one would be hurt if the passengers followed the given directions. Passengers were told to keep their heads down and not talk to each other. The hijackers stabbed two passengers to create an atmosphere of terror. All the males were blind-fol-led. When aircraft was refused permission to land at Lahore, it reached Amritsar for refuelling. The plane took off from Amritsar without refuelling when it was allowed to land at Lahore. Then the plane started for Kabul and landing Dubai came to Kandhar. It is a city of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban authorities.
Taliban Government-Non-co-operative
The Taliban representative at the U.N. told a private T.V. channel that an Indian official team was welcome to Kandhar if it came under the United Nations flag. The Taliban authorities also asked the United Nations to send a monitoring team to Afghanistan so that they should not be blamed for any possible event. A commando operation was not possible because the Taliban had refused to co-operate.
Wrong Handling of Hijackers
When the hijacking crisis was over on Dec. 31, 1999, the hostages had returned, there was a wide spread relief. But security experts, defence analysts and diplomats cautioned that many mistakes were committed in the handling of the hijack. The episode demonstrated how India was unable to react quickly when faced with a crisis. It was the same over Kargil. It took them a week to wake up to the reality.
Terrorists’ using familiar routes
Jaswant Singh’s eagerness to go to Afghanistan compromised India’s prestige because it seemed as though a Cabinet Minister was escorting terrorists. The security services had been complaining that the terrorists were using Kathmandu route to enter India for over a decade but the government had neither taken a tough stand with the Nepalese authorities over the increasing 151 presence in Nepal nor introduced passports for air travellers between India and Nepal. This hijacking was the 13th episode of its kind since 1971 but no sky-marshals were deployed in all hijack-prone sectors.
AIR Traffic control was informed at 4.56 p.m. that I.C. 814 had been hijacked. But it was quite strange that no senior officer could be found to talk to hijackers or relay instructions to the pilot till the aircraft landed at Lahore at 8.07 p.m.
Supported by enemy countries
Moreover evidence coming to light had proved that the hijackers were actually re-armed at Kandhar by the Taliban. There was no doubt that Afghan authorities were helping the hijackers. We should not forget that we are dealing with Muslim fundamentalist terrorists who have the backing of Pakistan and the Taliban government of Afghanistan. It is a pity-the government accepted the demand of the hijackers. If those responsible for terrorism are released under pressure from the same terrorist group, it makes a question mark how can we solve the problem of terrorism ?
Military not free to take action
It is wrong to assume that the elected representatives have competence in everything that they do because they have been elected. The entire drama had been on account of a lack of consultation and trust. Our armed forces would have performed their duty at Amritsar if they were authorised and informed at proper time to take action.
Wrong step by Government
The Government has justified the release of the three terrorists to end the hijack crisis by saying that it had reduced the number of terrorists from 35 to 3. Other plea is “if four militants could be released in exchange of the daughter of the then Home Minister in December 1989, then there is nothing wrong in releasing three militants for 160 hostages.” But the Government forgets that it is not the number but the principle involved which is important-whether one should buckle down to such terrorist blackmailing. It will be a sign of being a soft state and encouraging the terrorist.
Justification by Home Minister
Home Minister L.K. Advani told newspersons at an Iftar party-“No body would relish the idea of freeing three hardcore militants a trade-off but the trying circumstances left the government with no other option.” Responding to criticism about compromising national security by releasing the militants, he remarked that if something had happened to the hostage, “the same critics would have torn us to pieces.”
Vocabulary
Crew- ship’s staff, Hijack- take by force, छीनना, अगवा करना । Create- (here) make बनाना । Diplomat- skilled in negotiations, Route- way, passage, Tough- hard, Relay- (here) send, Plea- justification.
IMPORTANT LINK
- आदर्श इतिहास शिक्षक के गुण एंव समाज में भूमिका
- विभिन्न स्तरों पर इतिहास शिक्षण के उद्देश्य प्राथमिक, माध्यमिक तथा उच्चतर माध्यमिक स्तर
- इतिहास शिक्षण के उद्देश्य | माध्यमिक स्तर पर इतिहास शिक्षण के उद्देश्य | इतिहास शिक्षण के व्यवहारात्मक लाभ
- इतिहास शिक्षण में सहसम्बन्ध का क्या अर्थ है ? आप इतिहास शिक्षण का सह-सम्बन्ध अन्य विषयों से किस प्रकार स्थापित करेंगे ?
- इतिहास क्या है ? इतिहास की प्रकृति एवं क्षेत्र
- राष्ट्रीय उच्चतर शिक्षा अभियान के विषय में आप क्या जानते हैं ?
- शिक्षा के वैकल्पिक प्रयोग के सन्दर्भ में एस० एन० डी० टी० की भूमिका
- राष्ट्रीय पाठ्यचर्या की रूपरेखा (एन.सी.एफ.-2005) [National Curriculum Framework (NCF-2005) ]
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