Kandahar Hijack: Do we have right answers?

The year of 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of Kandahar hijack. Back in 1999, the negotiations resulted in release of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar along with two other terrorists named Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar in exchange of 187 hostages who returned safely to the national capital on the eve of new year. Incidentally, Masood Azhar is the alleged mastermind behind the heinous attack on CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Some media houses have blamed the Vajpayee government for bowing down to the demands of hijackers (in 1999) as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) continues its terror activities in India. Did the Vajpayee government goof up? Do we have right answers?

Taliban militants in front of the hijacked plane IC 814

Source: Wikipedia

The hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 was not India's first encounter with such a crisis. Around nine such incidents had been witnessed in the past and in almost all of them, either negotiations were reached or the hijackers were killed. However, unlike the past incidents, the hijackers of IC 814 were heavily armed and they were more in numbers. There is no denial that we continue to pay the price for the indecision but there are many facets to it. When the flight was hijacked, the Prime Minister was flying as well and the news reached him when he landed in New Delhi. This delayed the planning. While the pilots of flight IC 814 convinced the hijackers to land at the Amritsar airport, the airport authorities were clueless as they were unprepared to handle such a situation. The message from Crisis Management Group was to keep the aircraft grounded till a team of National Security Guards (NSGs) arrived and the skeptical government didn’t allow the Punjab police to initiate a commando operation fearing casualties. This could be considered as the biggest decision failure as those three quarters of an hour, which the government had at its disposal while the plane was at the Amritsar airport, were wasted. As tensions grew, the hijackers stabbed one of the passengers named Rupin Katyal, who succumbed to injuries, to send the message that they meant business. Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh asked for an oil tanker to block the runway which proved to be of no help as the plane took off for Lahore narrowly missing the tanker.

The plane refueled at the Lahore airport after numerous diplomatic interventions and left for Dubai before finally landing at the Kandahar airport in Afghanistan. By then, the family members and friends of the on-board passengers had started demanding the safe release of hostages. They kept reminding the government of Rubaiyya Sayeed’s (daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed) release against the exchange of terrorists back in 1989. The situation was tense as demands were made to relinquish Kashmir to ensure the safe release of hostages. A war widow and the father of a martyred army officer made a vain attempt of requesting the relatives to not bow down to the demands of hijackers; they were taunted and mocked.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh (left) addressing the media in Kandahar;

Masood Azhar (centre) and a Taliban's negotiator look on

Source: Google Images

The government had lost the plot when the plane took off for Lahore. Taliban joined the negotiations in Kandahar and India didn’t receive any support from the international community as the early post-cold war years were very fragile. India had to negotiate with the armed terrorists belonging to the hostile Pakistan and Taliban was new to the world. Any settlement that could have favored India was to release the terrorists. The government took the decision after convening an all-party meeting wherein all  political parties supported the government’s move. Though it was the worst possible settlement but also the best available. If those who made the decision knew then what we know now, would the story of IC 814 have ended differently? Well, there are no right answers.