Indian plane hijacking and irresponsible ministers

Recently in India and Nepal The crime thriller series 'IC 814 - The Kandahar Hijack', made about the hijacking of the 'Indian Airlines' plane from the Tribhuvan International Airport 25 years ago, has become very popular.

Ex-Secretary Regmi has also mentioned about the hijacking of the plane and the role he played as a member of the investigation committee in the recently released book.

from Regmi's book 'Jodhaha Rashtrasevak' Regarding the misuse of the acquired aircraft Like part zinc :

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Formation of investigation committee : 2056 First week of push Towards the end, after the hijacking of an Indian plane from Kathmandu on 24 December 1999, a high-level investigation committee was formed to investigate the matter and submit a report to the government of His Majesty the King.

I was also placed as a member of the investigation committee formed under the coordination of former Inspector General of Police Hem Bahadur Singh. Other members included Bishnuraj Pant, ex-chief of intelligence department, ex-general Tejendrajung Thapa and tourism secretary Varun Prasad Shrestha as member secretary. Initially, the deadline of 15 days was extended to 1 month.

Pressure not to sit in the committee:

There was a dilemma for a while whether to sit in the committee chaired by the former Inspector General of Police, but as he was also a member of the then Raj Parishad, I came to the conclusion that the question of dignity should not be raised . But "you who have become Home Secretary should not sit in the committee chaired by the former Inspector General of Police, there are many friends who say that you should resign immediately as it is not in line with dignity . Chief among them was the then Chief Election Commissioner Bishnu Pratap Shah. He is not only my well-wisher but also a person I respect and consider as a role model . Similarly, my friend was former secretary and the then executive director of Staff College, Shambhu Prasad Kayastha. Not only that, Hon'ble Sunil Bhandari and other well-wishers of the Nepali Congress also said that they should not sit in such a committee that does not meet the order of dignity. I was surprised to be acquitted.

Serious accusations against coordinator Singh

After the said committee was formed, some newspapers called Hem Bahadur Singh the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. They also objected who is the agent. Also, when the then general minister of Nepali Congress, Sushil Koirala, publicly objected to the formation of the said committee under the leadership of Hem Bahadur Singh, I was somewhat confused. Some parliamentarians also asked me to meet Girijababu and take his advice, but I decided to use my own discretion .

When I asked coordinator Singh for information on the matter, he said that he had rented out his house to Pakistani nationals, but later they were ISI. He explained that immediate action was taken after it came to know who was a member. Due to the plane hijacking case, the country was in an uncomfortable and emergency-like situation. The Indian media had waged such a jihad against Nepal that the Indian government would not take any unpleasant decision on Nepal for this reason! Under such circumstances, I would not consider it appropriate to make anything a matter of my personal reputation .

As a former national servant, I felt it was my responsibility to fully support the Nepali Congress government. No matter what anyone says or advises, I came to the conclusion that I will not do anything to help Krishna Prasad Bhattarai's government. Be it due to the internal strife of the Nepali Congress or any other reason, I felt that Sushil Koiralaji's public statement against the inquiry committee formed under the leadership of Hem Bahadur Singh was irresponsible.

Even though the government of his party has inadvertently made some shortcomings in the situation of national calamity, it was not appropriate to make a strong comment on the functioning of his own government by emphatically highlighting the fact that even the opposition did not raise the fact that it should be covered up keeping in mind the national interest . In this perspective, I resolved to fulfill the responsibility entrusted to me honestly for the benefit of the country.

The main purpose of the plane hijack

The Indian Airlines plane hijacked from Kathmandu stopped in Amritsar, India for a while. It was delivered to Afghanistan's Kandahar via Lahore in Pakistan and Dubai in UAE. There were 176 passengers and 15 crew members in the plane, including 5 hijackers. The plane was hijacked by militants of a terrorist organization called "Harkat ul Mujahideen". This hijacking was to free the leaders of the Islamic terrorist organization "Mujahideen" Ahmad Omar Sahid from jail. In this hijacking case that lasted for a week, Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Kashmiri militants were killed. Mustaq Ahmed Zargar was released from Indian jail. In this abduction case that lasted for a week, one person died. Indian pressures began to come in the form of words. After a few days of our work, we strongly objected to the threats to our country's sovereignty and independent existence. "We are working independently, there should be no unnecessary pressure, if this happens we are ready to leave the committee, another committee should be formed and investigated. At that time we were really very sensitive about our freedom and sovereignty . In the meantime we met the then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and kept everything . Appreciating our stand, he said, "We will also listen to the Indian side, but you are completely free to understand what you see while taking decisions or making recommendations, act confidently. After receiving such assurance, we proceeded with the investigation with more confidence.

Indian The pressure of the party was mainly about two issues. The first thing is that the Indian representatives should be included during our investigation and the second thing is that when we prepare the report, it should be mentioned that Pakistan is involved in the hijacking case. But only based on the facts that we got from our investigation We were adamant about giving a report. In the end, we treated the Indian side as well and collected suggestions from them, especially on security issues, and we included them in our report -break During the investigation, our main focus was on where and what kind of weakness remained in the security system of our airport . How did the armed hijackers get to the plane so easily? In order to draw a conclusion, we made a study visit to the airport three times in order to study it from different angles. Along with taking the statements of the relevant employees working there at the time of the abduction, the security personnel working there asked about the procedure to be followed regarding the security check of the passengers and about the procedure to be allowed to enter the airport and the VIPs allowed to enter the airport. And we also got detailed information about the general pass distribution process and found out about the shortcomings of all the aspects seen there .

True statement with the heads of the office

During the

statement, we interviewed S.P. of Nepal Police, DSP of National Investigation Department who are the security chiefs at the airport. And we called the head of the airport of the Civil Aviation Authority and took a statement. Where were you at the time of the plane hijacking? What were you doing? Try to end the statement by asking general questions like . Their answers were also of the same general nature . 'I was out for work, I was busy with other work' etc. . I was not satisfied with this kind of question and answer.

I first asked the SP that I have a few more questions - What are you posted for at the airport? Is your responsibility to provide reliable security arrangements at the airport fulfilled? How did the hijackers manage to reach the plane with weapons? Sai, A.S.E. Are you freed from your responsibility by your statement that I went to another job after entrusting him with security including checking? How can you be acquitted by leaving S.E. Asai in charge of the security of a very sensitive place like the airport? If so, why is there a need for the post of SP? S.E. Will the Asai be put in charge there? Are you given all the luxuries like cars, guards, etc. just to enhance your personal prestige ? Or is it given so that it is easy to fulfill the official responsibility ? Did you complete the flight due to security flaws? After not fulfilling the responsibility, if a big incident like kidnapping happens, you should be prosecuted, will you not be responsible? Such questions of mine made him speechless and he felt that there was some weakness on his part .

In the same way, the other two office heads were also given a truthful statement regarding the deficiencies related to their work duties. Even though they tried to cover up their weaknesses, they finally admitted that they were weak. When we prepared the report, we recommended that all the above mentioned three heads be suspended for some time and take departmental action for not performing their duties efficiently . Later it was found that the government suspended them for three/three months and also took departmental action. My disagreement with the

initial report

During the preparation of the final report on the investigation of the hijacking of the Indian plane, there was no consensus among me and some other members including the chairman of the investigation committee. The thing is, after the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane, Deputy Minister of Tourism Narayan Singh Pun publicly said that "we received information about a month ago from Nepal that the plane might be hijacked". It was found that no more interest or security precautions were taken in the arrangement. After receiving such relevant information, the meeting of the National Aviation Security Committee chaired by the Minister of Tourism and the need to make arrangements to strengthen and tighten the security arrangements was also found to be negligent and negligent in this regard I insisted that it should be mentioned in our report that the related political leadership was not serious and irresponsible, but the chairman and another member did not agree with me Our constitution and no law envisages an irresponsible political leadership that does not even give general instructions to the relevant security officers and other security officials to further strengthen the security arrangements even after receiving information that the plane may be hijacked. Therefore, my position remained that we should have a report with the message that the political leadership should also be responsible.

My pressure to make the ministers responsible

The final report was ready, but they tried to forcefully move forward without even mentioning the word political leadership, but I was not going to back down. They began to have intensive debates.

I told them that in the ministry, from pens to buying airplanes, the commission ministers need, from drinks to secretaries, they show undue interest in appointments and transfers, but they show irresponsibility despite having been forewarned that an accident related to their ministry may occur, causing a national disaster, and while doing so, they are generally punished. If not, what values ​​and culture are we trying to develop? Our report should not create a situation where only the low-level police officers and other public servants who are on immediate duty should be punished, but the responsible political and administrative high officials will get away with it.

I made many arguments like this but the president kept insisting that he should not touch a political person . In the end, I gave them my final statement and said, "Even though the report was forewarned that the plane might be hijacked, the relevant political leadership did not show the necessary seriousness in this regard." I will not sign the report. If you insist that you must sign but cannot write a dissenting vote, I can resign from the committee and walk away. After I said this, they came to the address and started saying let's find a middle ground . In the end, it was agreed to write the procedure as I said, but to adjust it by adding the words "leadership involved in policy making" instead of "political leadership level".

tourism minister's press conference

If this document is studied well, not only the events of the hijacking of the plane, but also the shortcomings seen in the security system, the methods and procedures to be adopted to improve them, and the arrangements that the political and administrative officials should be responsible for, have been clarified. If the report was improperly implemented by the political and administrative officials, the then tourism minister and assistant minister would have to resign on the basis of ethics. The report has also given a message that the tradition that national service employees should be punished if they do not fulfill their duties and responsibilities, but the political leadership should not be punished if they do not fulfill their responsibilities .

After we submitted the report to the Minister of Tourism, a press conference was organized in the Ministry of Tourism. It is a common practice to give a summary of the report at the press conference, but the minister only informed the journalists that the investigation committee has submitted the report. Journalists questioned Tourism Minister Gachchdar by asking many questions, but the minister did not want to mention any part of the report. The purpose of the press conference could not be confirmed after the Minister insisted that the report should not be made public without discussing it in the Council of Ministers as the

report contains very sensitive issues related to peace and security and may affect international relations. Journalists came back expressing their displeasure with "only the news that the inquiry committee had submitted its report".