The most traumatic hijacking incident for this country is mercifully over. The unfortunate passengers, the crew and the aircraft are safely back home. For the first time the danger to them was real. On more than one occasion, the hijackers, claiming to be Bhindranwale supporters, appeared to be ready to go over the brink. Indeed for one chilling moment it seemed as if the pilot had no option but to jettison the aircraft in the sea. He had been refused permission to land at Dubai and could not stay long in the air for want of fuel. Fortunately, the Dubai authorities relented in time and allowed the plane to land. And it is to their great credit that they were able to bring the sordid episode to a satisfactory end. Led by the UAE defence minister, the negotiators conducted the talks with the hijackers with the appropriate mixture of firmness and tact. For well over 12 hours, they steadfastly refused to refuel the aircraft despite the hijackers insistence. If the passengers and crew broiled inside the oven-like plane, Dubai’s blistering heat wore down the desperadoes as well. Finally, firmness paid; the hijackers released the passengers and the crew and then surrendered. The Dubai authorities deserve our gratitude for this happy denouement. And we might add that if all governments were to adopt a similarly tough attitude in dealing with hijackers, the scourge of air piracy may well be greatly reduced.
Unlike on the previous occasion last month, the Pakistan government this time has been less than helpful. It agreed to refuel the aircraft first at Lahore and then at Karachi when it returned there from Dubai on not being allowed to land there in the first attempt. And as the Indian ambassador in Islamabad has put on record, it turned down his request for delaying the plane’s take-off from Karachi. All in all, it was keen to wash its hands of the problem. This is understandable inasmuch as it did not wish to be landed with more hijackers while those involved in the two previous incidents are still in Pakistan. But they are there only because Islamabad does not wish to return them to India and in the process dissociate itself from extremists in this country.
The enemy is, however, located within our own gates. The fact that barely seven weeks after the hijacking of the Airbus from Srinagar, the Boeing could be so easily taken over by terrorists after its take-off from Chandigarh on Friday, provides a most damning indictment of the security arrangements at our airports. The ease with which the hijackers, clearly a bunch of young amateurs, were able to carry pistols and plastic bombs into the aircraft both at Delhi and Chandigarh is scandalous beyond belief. Casualness and inefficiency on the part of security and airport authorities might not wholly account for it. Something far worse – wilful treachery – appears to have been at work.