India had planned to carry out a commando action to end the hijack of Indian Airlines plane -- IC-814 -- at Kandahar airport in December 1999 before the crisis could be resolved after a one-week ordeal, a former official said on Friday .
New Delhi had also made desperate efforts to get the Taliban"s backing for the raid by playing the religious card telling the militia that holding scores of passengers hostges was an un-Islamic act, he said.
A decade after the hijacking of the aircraft to the south-eastern province of Afghanistan, A K Doval, India's Chief Negotiator with the hijackers, recalled the tense moments while engaging in hours of talks to secure release of nearly 160 passengers.
The former Intelligence Bureau Chief said that at one point of time they had planned a commando action and a bid was made to convince the Taliban that a free hand be given.
"We tried...we tried to convince Taliban...as much as I could, telling them that situation is bad and we might have to take action to vacate the hijackers and it is un-Islamic," recalls 64-year-old Doval, the first police officer to be awarded second highest military award Kirti Chakra.
"We will be grateful if you could help...but Taliban's standard reply was that they would not allow a single drop of blood on our soil...so they did not allow anything like that," Doval told PTI in New delhi.
The Indian Airlines plane was hijacked on December 24, 1999 by five Pakistani hijackers identified as Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim and Shakir.
To a question whether any bait was offered to Taliban in exchange for allowing India to storm the aircraft, Doval said these things are always done.
"We did tell them that Afghanistan and India are friends...etc etc. The question was defusing the situation," he said and remarked that such an attempt should not be termed as a serious diplomatic move.
He said without taking Taliban into confidence, no move was possible. "We were in their territory...the tanks were surrounding the aircraft...the Taliban guarding the hijacked plane were actually protecting the hijackers. We could have done nothing," he said.
Doval regretted that the Government was unable to put up an effective case about the hijack crisis before the international community.
The Indian Airlines Plane with 174 passengers and a 11-member crew on a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi was hijacked on December 24, 1999 while it was overflying Lucknow. The crisis ended on December 31.
Dreaded terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar, Sheikh Omar and Mushtaq Zargar were released by the government in exchange for the 158 passengers and crew on December 31, 1999.
One passenger Rupin Katyal was killed by the hijackers and his body was handed over at Abu Dhabi air base. PTI
