The Kandahar hijacking episode is one of the most painful incidents that we would like to forget. But our politicians take pleasure in reminding us about this nightmare time and again for milking electoral dividends from this saga of human suffering. A bunch of ruthless killers hijacked an Indian airplane in Kandahar and started shooting the helpless passengers to obtain the release of the dreaded terrorist, Masood Azar from the Indian jail. The then Taliban government of Afghanistan, discarding all the international obligations, actively colluded and abetted with the hijackers and provided logistical support to them.
Storming the hijacked airplane was out of place because the plane was surrounded by the Taliban militia. Could any other government, worth its salt, have done something different and saved the passengers from the determined killers than what the government of the day did not forgetting how 4 hard core terrorists were released for mufti’s daughter in a fake kidnap drama.
HT political bureau, Hindustan Times Email Author New Delhi, January 22, 2009 First Published: 00:20 IST(22/1/2009) Last Updated: 00:26 IST(22/1/2009)
Home Minister P Chidamabaram on Wednesday said he too might have done what the BJP-led NDA did during the IC-814 hijacking and it was not easy to predict how a decision-maker would behave in a certain situation.
“It is easy to criticise, but difficult to take decisions,” he said at a function in the capital, asked whether the government would adopt a “no negotiation policy” with terrorists.
“I can’t say. I really can’t say. How would I have behaved if families of 150 people came to me and pleaded for the lives of their loved ones,” the home minister said. The decision of the then NDA government to release terrorists in exchange of passengers of the hijacked IC-184 plane remains a point of criticism for the ruling Congress to which Chidamabaram belongs.
“If one takes ten decisions, one or two may go wrong. Show me a man who has not taken a wrong decision and I will show you a man who has taken no decision ever,” Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram said as home minister he had resolved to take decisions unmindful of what others felt or said. “I have been 50 days in the office. There is another 100 days to go for this government. I do not look over my shoulder time More then 1000 people died and 17 explosions & terrorism (Mumbai attack) in UPA period Answer from congress-Kandhar flight Inflation rises to 12.50%
