COMMANDO 2 LAST

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