CBI to probe IA hijacking case

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 6. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would probe the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814, said the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Mr. Advani, said the plea for a CBI probe was made by the Punjab Government and the Centre has agreed to it.

The CBI would initiate steps to identify the hijackers' accomplices and arrest them, he said. Asked if the CBI would also probe failures, if any, on the part of authorities to act promptly at the time when the aircraft was in Amritsar, Mr. Advani said the Government was looking into it. The Government was also planning to have its own security staff at the Kathmandu airport, so far as Indian Airlines flights were concerned, he added.

The entire nation was relieved when all the 160 passengers and the crew were released after their traumatic eight-day ordeal, he said and added that the people were also unhappy that the nation had to pay a price. Mr. Advani said under the anti-hijacking laws, violence during hijacking was punishable by death sentence and there had been a murder aboard the IA plane. Pakistan was also a signatory to the Montreal Convention on anti-hijacking and it (Pakistan) was under obligation to take recourse to legal action against the hijackers.

On increasing attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Advani said tempo of violence had heightened after Pakistan's incursion was crushed in Kargil.

``The war against terrorism has been a protracted one, always and everywhere in the world. No country that has got the better of this menace has had the luxury of following a smooth, linear path. But experience the world over has also shown that a terrorist movement, confronted by organised state power, is always subject to the law of decreasing returns and increasing risks. Our Government is determined to make Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India also free from terrorism,'' he said.

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