HIJACK-DOVAL 2

"If the government was not under pressure, they would
have said boys take your time, you are doing a good job...If
you want, at your judgement close it, not at our judgement. I
am not telling that we could have succeeded but may be we have
brought it to two, it could have become one(terrorist) there
was a possibility," Doval said.
He recalled the episode as an "opportunity lost" for
India. "Opportunity lost...from my personal angle as an
operational man, I think an opportunity lost.... it's not only
at Kandahar but right from the very beginning from Nepal to
this thing," he said.
The government was constantly asking us to do something
and secure the release of the weary passengers, he said.
"New millennium is starting. What are you fellows doing?
ap log kuch kariye (do something). Isko jitne mein hota hai
kariye. Passengers ko wapas laeiye(bring back passengers),"
said Doval recalling a conversation with authorities in Delhi
Doval felt the government of the day should not have
been obsessed with symbolic event like start of a new
millennium.
"Hazaar saal baad phir aajayega. Koi baat nahin lekin we
will try to sort out with. So we were trying to gain time both
from the terrorists and also from the public but it is a
public opinion which was putting the pressure on top of it,"
he said.
He said India could have held on for more time because
the hijackers, though behaving rudely, were reducing their
demands but refused to divulge messages that he was getting
from the government in New Delhi.
"My personal feeling about this I think we should have
held on for some more time...I think so because they were
coming down on their demands," Doval said. (MORE) PTI