Terrorist epicentre shifts: expert
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 26 — The centre of gravity of international terrorist activities has shifted from West Asia to South Asia with Pakistan and Afghanistan being the epicentre, a strategic analyst said today.

In an interview with TNS, Air Vice Marshal (Rtd) Kapil Kak, Deputy Director, Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, said the latest incident of hijack of an Indian Airlines plane should make the world take note of this development.

“The centre of gravity of terrorist operations has shifted from West Asia to South Asia with Pakistan and Afghanistan being the epicentre with the Durand line virtually non-existent’’ he said.

He said the world community should take note of the development about which India had been talking.

Stating that while there were several aspects there was a larger dimension to these developments, he said adding that proliferation of small arms and narcotics-trade feeding violent actions were part of it.

He said in the past decade the militants had changed their operations from conventional methods and were now adopting sub-conventional methods.

The ultra-ethnic problems like those being witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir and in the North-East, in his opinion, had not seen the last.

He said India should reconcile to building up a structure which could come up with responses and decision making process according to the emerging challenges.

AVM Kak said the policy so drawn should incorporate the diplomatic developments, emerging technology and have greater harmony so that such forces could be neutralised effectively.

In his opinion, Pakistan may not stop aiding subversive activities against India and at best may slow down since its eventual aim is to work towards destabilising the nation. He said, while destabilisation may not happen, the activities could cause bleeding.

Asked to comment on the criticism in some quarters about the response at Amritsar in allowing the plane to fly off, he said as per available information at that time, the hijackers were supposed to be armed with AK-series rifles and grenades and any attempt to stop the plane forcibly would have endangered more lives.

He said there was little time for trained negotiators and the crack commando force to move in without causing undue fear in the minds of the hijackers who could have taken action that could have resulted in major damage.

The idea was not to agitate the hijackers which could have meant loss of many more lives, he said.

Plane’s pilot under great stress

NEW DELHI, Dec 26 (PTI) — Captain Devi Sharan, pilot of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814, will have to depend entirely on his personal judgement and inner strength as no pilot can be trained to handle such a complex situation as he has been faced with, according to fellow pilots.

Capt Sharan has already flown many times longer than the prescribed norms, landed and taken off without previous route checks, often with fuel running out and faced the stress of hijacking - all at the same times, the pilots said.

“We have limits of flying we can do. It is laid down in our flight duty and time limitations (FDTL) manual that we can do only six and a half hours of flying on the domestic sector. Capt Sharan has already done six times that,” Capt A.G. Sharma, Regional Secretary of Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) told PTI on the phone from Mumbai.

“The pilot can fly for one extra hour on a domestic sector and another hour if it is an international flight. Over that, the pilot gets two hours of duty on the ground, all of which adds up to nine hours as per the FDTL”, Capt Sharma said, adding one can only guess the amount of stress and fatigue Capt Sharan is facing.

“A pilot who has not rested adequately can doze off in normal conditions. Adding one can realise the situation Capt Sharan is in,” said Capt Sumant Mishra, an Alliance Air Pilot.

“The hijackers are well equipped and apparently well trained. There is no way Capt Sharan could have hoodwinked them. One really has to appreciate that the pilot has nerves of steel to have been able to carry the situation so well until now,” Capt Mishra said.

“Fuel running low, hijacker standing on his back with a gun, uncharted course, unfamiliar terrain, poor ground facilities - that’s too many odds stacked against the pilot, he added.

Asked if pilots are trained to face hijack situations, Capt Mishra said there is some training, but the pilot generally has to go by his gut feeling.

“The pilot, in such conditions, can really do nothing except obey the hijackers and hope for the best,” he added.

Capt Sharma said there were some mock hijack exercises conducted by Indian Airlines a few years ago, but Capt Sharan was not involved in the exercise. He would be depending only on his experience and personal strength of character.

Capt Sharan has had to face several technical problems too. The plane has been flying without maintenance, the pilot is not very familiar with the route and has to communicate with air traffic controllers in several countries, many of whom would only tell him he is not supposed to be there at all, Capt Sharma said.

“No commercial pilot operates flights to Kandahar. The facilities over there cannot be very good. Moreover, it is a hilly terrain and Capt Sharan has been forced to land there without any previous route checks, he said, adding “everything about the flight is totally unprecedented.”