Order to ‘stop plane’ was given

NEW DELHI, Dec 29 (PTI) — The government gave clear directions to the authorities in Amritsar to immobilise the hijacked plane, and an oil tanker for refuelling approached it with personnel instructed to deflate the tyres of the aircraft, which then turned round and took off without refuelling.

Authoritative sources said both the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister spoke to senior police officials in Amritsar directing them that the plane should not be allowed to go without the prior permission of the crisis management group (CMG) and that time should be bought.

The sources also said the Director-General of National Security Guard (NSG) had been directed to rush the elite force commandos to Amritsar even before it was known that the aircraft would land there.

The order was given in anticipation that it might be forced to land in Indian territory if Pakistan failed to give permission for landing as its fuel was running out.

However, flying time from Delhi to Amritsar was 50 minutes and there was no way that the NSG could have reached Amritsar in time and succeeded in its mission before the aircraft took off.

Added to this was the fact that a storming operation by the commandos before separating passengers from hijackers would have been ill-advised.

The sources also said it was doubtful whether negotiations could have started in Amritsar at all before the killing of passengers if the runway had been blocked as hijackers were in a mood of “extreme desperation”.

Most of the time the aircraft kept constantly running its engine as well as moving and changing directions on the tarmac. The CMG had also recorded inputs that the hijackers were heavily armed with revolvers, AK-47s and grenades.

Had the fuel tanker tried to block the runway, the result would have been disastrous as the hijackers were reported to have killed four persons by then and were about to kill more as per a message from the pilot.

Besides, the aircraft was on the runway itself, moving and turning sometimes thereby ruling out the possibility of landing by an aircraft carrying NSG commandos.

In between there was a mysterious call from Delhi for immediate refuelling of the aircraft from one G. Lal, “Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry”. It was a fake call as there is no such joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The call was apparently made by someone on behalf of the hijackers.

Directions were, therefore, repeated by the crisis management group that refuelling should be delayed and the aircraft prevented from taking off.

There was no question of a flat denial of the facilities demanded by the hijackers as it would have exposed the passengers to immediate risk.