… 
Sunil Dutta, a Professor of Homeland Security at Colorado Tech
University, has been an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department
for 17 years. The views presented here are his own and do not represent
the LAPD.

Education

• M.A. Homeland Security, Naval Postgraduate School, United States Center for Homeland Defense and Security, Monterey, CA, (2012)
  




• 
  Ph.D. Plant Biology, University of California, Davis (1995)




• M.S. Plant Physiology, University of Florida, Gainesville (1989)




• B.S. Botany, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India (1986)
  

Background 

…..Dr.
Sunil Dutta is a full time law enforcement professional working in Los
Angeles.  He has been with the LAPD for sixteen years.  His assignments
have included Watch Commander, Internal Affairs Investigator, patrol officer,
and Collision Investigator…..Prior
to joining the LAPD, Dutta was a scientist with a specialization in
biochemistry (host-pathogen interactions, plant hormones, carbohydrate
metabolism, and regulation of dormancy).  He is an amateur musician….

To
be honest, once we recovered from the shock (that was an Indian speaking??), we
were ready to admit that Dr Dutta has penned an impressive op-ed. Based
on his bio, we guess that he hails from a Punjabi or Haryanvi background. He is
the “first” Indian-American law and order conservative that we
have ever heard from (or heard about). Also he is quite a sharp-spoken biologist (we
know a few of them).

As for the rest, yes…excellent advice…for (black, brown) young males in the USA. When we first learned to drive it was drummed into our rebellious heads (incidentally, by a black tutor) that in case the police ordered you to pull over, you must come to a stop….slow and easy (with hazard lights ON), keep your windows lowered, and your hands visibly placed on the wheel at all times. 
……….
If they ask you to step out, immediately comply, while keeping the hands held high. Under no circumstance, do you keep the hands in your pockets. Do not make any sudden movement. Never crack jokes, be courteous, always address the “racist pig” as “Officer.”  

The response to our indignant whys was an angry whisper: Brother….do you want to die?

No Officer Dutta, we do not want to die. And we respect you for doing a tough job. And yes – as you have admirably pointed out – if the police can afford military grade weapons they can stretch the budget to include a video camera. The absence of video is baffling, but then if you think twice….it all makes sense.
………..

A teenager is fatally shot by a police officer; the police are
accused of being bloodthirsty, trigger-happy murderers; riots erupt.
This, we are led to believe, is the way of things in America.…..It is also a terrible calumny; cops are not
murderers. 
……
No officer goes out in the field wishing to shoot anyone,
armed or unarmed. And while they’re unlikely to defend it quite as
loudly during a time of national angst like this one, people who work in
law enforcement know they are legally vested with the authority to
detain suspects — an authority that must sometimes be enforced.
Regardless of what happened with Mike Brown, in the overwhelming
majority of cases it is not the cops, but the people they stop, who can
prevent detentions from turning into tragedies.

….
Working the
street, I can’t even count how many times I withstood curses, screaming
tantrums, aggressive and menacing encroachments on my safety zone, and
outright challenges to my authority. In the vast majority of such
encounters, I was able to peacefully resolve the situation without using
force. Cops deploy their training and their intuition creatively, and I
wielded every trick in my arsenal, including verbal judo, humor,
warnings and ostentatious displays of the lethal (and nonlethal)
hardware resting in my duty belt. 

One time, for instance, my partner and
I faced a belligerent man who had doused his car with gallons of gas
and was about to create a firebomb at a busy mall filled with holiday
shoppers. The potential for serious harm to the bystanders would have
justified deadly force. Instead, I distracted him with a hook about his
family and loved ones, and he disengaged without hurting anyone. Every
day cops show similar restraint and resolve incidents that could easily
end up in serious injuries or worse.

…..
Sometimes, though, no amount
of persuasion or warnings work on a belligerent person; that’s when
cops have to use force, and the results can be tragic. We are still
learning what transpired between Officer Darren Wilson and Brown, but in
most cases it’s less ambiguous — and officers are rarely at fault. When
they use force, they are defending their, or the public’s, safety.

…..
Even
though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if
you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton
or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me,
don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a
racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge.
Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me. Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?

I know it is scary for people to be stopped by cops. I also
understand the anger and frustration if people believe they have been
stopped unjustly or without a reason. I am aware that corrupt and bully
cops exist. 

When it comes to police misconduct, I side with the ACLU:
Having worked as an internal affairs investigator, I know that some
officers engage in unprofessional and arrogant behavior; sometimes they
behave like criminals themselves. I also believe every cop should use a
body camera to record interactions with the community at all times. 

Every police car should have a video recorder. (This will prevent a
situation like Mike Brown’s shooting, about which conflicting and
self-serving statements allow people to believe what they want.) And you
don’t have to submit to an illegal stop or search. You can refuse
consent to search your car or home if there’s no warrant (though a
pat-down is still allowed if there is cause for suspicion). Always ask
the officer whether you are under detention or are free to leave. Unless
the officer has a legal basis to stop and search you, he or she must
let you go. Finally, cops are legally prohibited from using excessive
force: The moment a suspect submits and stops resisting, the officers
must cease use of force.

…
But
if you believe (or know) that the cop stopping you is violating your
rights or is acting like a bully, I guarantee that the situation will
not become easier if you show your anger and resentment. Worse,
initiating a physical confrontation is a sure recipe for getting hurt.
Police are legally permitted to use deadly force when they assess a
serious threat to their or someone else’s life. 

Save your anger for
later, and channel it appropriately. Do what the officer tells you to
and it will end safely for both of you. We have a justice system in
which you are presumed innocent; if a cop can do his or her job
unmolested, that system can run its course. Later, you can ask for a
supervisor, lodge a complaint or contact civil rights organizations if
you believe your rights were violated. Feel free to sue the police! Just
don’t challenge a cop during a stop.

….’
An average person cannot
comprehend the risks and has no true understanding of a cop’s job.
Hollywood and television stereotypes of the police are cartoons in which
fearless super cops single-handedly defeat dozens of thugs, shooting
guns out of their hands. Real life is different. An average cop is
always concerned with his or her safety and tries to control every
encounter. That is how we are trained. 

While most citizens are courteous
and law abiding, the subset of people we generally interact with
everyday are not the genteel types. You don’t know what is in my mind
when I stop you. Did I just get a radio call of a shooting moments ago?
Am I looking for a murderer or an armed fugitive? For you, this might be
a “simple” traffic stop, for me each traffic stop is a potentially
dangerous encounter. Show some empathy for an officer’s safety concerns.
Don’t make our job more difficult than it already is.

….
Community
members deserve courtesy, respect and professionalism from their
officers. Every person stopped by a cop should feel safe instead of
feeling that their wellbeing is in jeopardy. Shouldn’t the community
members extend the same courtesy to their officers and project that the
officer’s safety is not threatened by their actions?
……..

Link: im-a-cop-if-you-dont-want-to-get-hurt-dont-challenge-me

…..

regards

…. 
We have (mostly) unhappy feelings about the border wars on the Line of Control….the shootings, the torture, the be-headings. The (anti-Zionist, Jewish-American) Norman Finkelstein calls the mindset of liberal Jews who find themselves perched on the fence as: shooting…but crying. Well, we do not like being on the fence, and we do not want to shoot and we do not enjoy crying.

Thousands of civilians, militants and military people on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) have died , some who are true believers, some who are only too happy to do their job and leave in time (and not in a casket), and the rest who live here and have no place to go…and are being driven slowly insane by the prolonged conflict (see below). And not to forget the shadow of the Bomb….there is no other border in the world which is as dangerous and deadly…..and also none as beautiful.
…….

….
We visited Kashmir when we were very young, but we will never visit the place again. There is no doubt that India (and Indians) are an oppressive force in the valley (on the lines of Gaza, Chechnya, Xinjiang…). When you feel hurt hearing the slogan: “Bhooka Nanga Hindustan, Jan Se Pyara Pakistan”…please reflect on what YOU would do if you lived in an occupied zone.

Of course Kashmiris are guilty of some unforgivable sins as well. If you are a Arundhati Roy fan, you may know that the India actually facilitated the expulsion/exile of the Pandits, in order to darken the (righteous) cause of Kashmiris.
……..
Following this theory, the fatwa issued daily from the mosque-speakers in 1989-1990: Hindus leave your homes, leave your women behind”……was actually Congress propaganda!!! And yes, the Pandits are also rotting away in refugee camps and are being driven slowly insane by the prolonged conflict. And, no, they will never see their native land again.

The Yazidis (called devil worshippers by the Iraqi islamists) are facing the same situation right now (propaganda by Zionist lobby??) – history repeating itself as tragedy.
…..
Between 80 and 100 men are believed to have been killed. Scores of women and girls were taken away in trucks, possibly to be sold off as slave-wives to IS fighters. 
…….
Is there some sort of global karmic equation that permits people to be oppressed and carry out oppression in equal measure? Shall we all die for our promised land and promised causes (we will all die anyway)?

In the sub-continent it would be nice enough if the bellicosity (on both sides) was toned down a bit. But then we realize that are only 960 years of fighting left (see quotation below) and it will be (approx) thirty generations going forward for peace to take hold (hopefully).
…………..
…..”So please, Mr. President and members of the Security Council, realize
the implications. The Pakistani nation is a brave nation. One of the
greatest British generals said that the best infantry fighters in the
world are the Pakistanis……We will fight…… We will fight for a thousand
years, if it comes to that“……
………………………………


My wife and I stood under a starry night. We were here to celebrate our
first wedding anniversary. The breeze that the river brought with it
through the gorges was chilling. Beaten by the strong sun during the day
we couldn’t have imagined that the night would be so cold. The river
flew at our feet, its fast-paced torrents crashing against the rocks on
the riverbed.

The sound echoed through the valley. A dark
mountain stood in front of us. Earlier in the day, we had sat here
sitting under a tree, sipping our tea and marvelling at the beauty in
front of us. It was a gorgeous mountain, with flat notches cut into its
side to create fields for agriculture. A few wooden houses stood around
the plains and some villagers were working on the fields.

“Yes.
But they don’t any more. Ever since Musharraf made a deal with the
Indians, we have stopped sending Mujahidin from here. Earlier, they used
to cross the LoC from here and also Sharda, which is about two hours
north from here. This is why the Indian soldiers used to shoot here. You
and I would not have been able to sit here. 

Things were so bad that in
the night if someone as much as lit a cigarette he would be shot. This
road that brought you here from Muzaffarabad could not have been used.
In retaliation, of course, our Pakistani soldiers also used to fire.
This condition continued for a decade or so, from the early 1990s to
early 2000s. In those years about 3,000 people died from this region.
About 200 Mujahidin used to cross every night.”

“Did the Mujahidin also have their training camps here at Karen?”
“Yes.
But not any more. Now they only operate from Muzaffarabad and cross
over from Rawal Kot region [which is south of Muzaffarabad, while Karen
and Sharda are north of it]. Cross-LoC firing takes place in that region
only now. 

But you know there is a much bigger war coming and you should
brace yourself for that. That would be a war over water. The Indians
have constructed Kishenganga on this river on their side and soon there
would be water shortage in Pakistan.” The Neelum River, which acts as the LoC in this part of the Neelum valley, is known as Kishenganga on the Indian side.

Later,
a mosque from across the river sounded the azaan, identifying the time
for prayer. No azaan followed from the Pakistani side but a few men and
women sitting around me decided to go and say their prayers. This was
once one village, Karen, now divided between two countries. Most of the
houses on the Indian side of the village are vacant.

About an hour
before Karen comes Athmuqam. After passing a checkpoint I slowed down
the car to catch a glimpse of the Indian town on the other side of the
river. There was a huge cricket ground with the Indian flag hoisted on
one side. A wooden bridge connected the two settlements flanking the
river. This is the point where Kashmiris are allowed to pass over to the
other country’s territory to see relatives who have been stranded by
the LoC. This is also the point where, it is rumoured, one can purchase
smuggled Indian whiskey by bribing the soldiers.
 
The
name of this part of the Neelum valley has been changed to Vigilant
valley. There are army boards and posters throughout the road stating
that. Here too there used to be regular firing between the two armies.

Once
again I took out my identity card and handed it over to an army sentry
standing at the entrance. “How far is the LoC from here?” “I don’t
know.” 
“In what direction is the LoC from here?”“I don’t know.”

“The
mountain behind this mountain belongs to the Indians,” said our waiter
as we sat down next to the river after visiting the temple. “Here too
there used to be firing. The Indian soldiers used to fire into our
territory including our villages. We had no other option but to
retaliate.”
“Did we attack their villages?” I asked him.
“How could we? Those are, after all, our own villages.”

(Haroon Khalid is the author of A White Trail: A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities; Westland, 2013)

….

Link (1): A-journey-along-the-Line-of-Control-in-Pakistan

Link (2): kurds-abandoned-the-yazidis-when-isis-attacked

Link (3): Bhuttos_farewell_speech_to_the_Security_Council

….

regards

….
The “trade” between India and the United Kingdom in the colonial period was an euphemism for brutal exploitation. Indian manufacturing was destroyed by unfair tariffs in the UK. Thus “trade” consisted of India exporting raw materials (cotton, jute) at dirt prices and to buy English-Scottish finished goods (gunny bags, clothes) at high prices.

For thousands of years, India was known far and near as the promised land. First came the plundering armies, the missionaries followed, and not far behind were the “flood” of job-seeking immigrants. It was the promises of the Indian empire holdings (East India Company) that encouraged Scotland to forge and continue with a union pact with England (01 May 1707). Now that the charms of a captive foreign market is gone, Scotland finds the centuries old bonds to be an irritant (Scotland votes for partition-independence on September 18, 2014).
………

…..
The good face of colonialism we know: British gave us a sense of nationality (which was useful in the fight for freedom, many Scots played an important role), they taught us the first principles of democracy (which we are still learning to master) and all that.

….
The sad face of colonialism….it is now considered bad form to speak about it. The Victorian Holocausts which knocked off large percentages of the population is a good place to start. If there is any one event that stands out that would be the Bengal famine of 1943 when 4.3 million people perished. While Indian merchants certainly stocked grains and contributed to the problems in supply, it was a British administration  that was responsible in a direct (as well as indirect) manner.

Now the bowl has upturned and immigrants plan to leave India for the West…anyhow.  Their desperation is such that they do not care that they may end up losing their lives.
…….
The good picture of Indians migrating to the West and living out the American (or Canadian, Australian…) dream is well viewed. There is a sad picture as well which mostly stays underground unless there is a explosion and then we discover the mess.

Surprisingly it is not just Indians (and other poor people) who are desperate to leave. As many as 58 citizens of the newly minted superpower also died trying to cross over to the UK from Zeebrugge in June. How come the Chinese (both poor and the super affluent) are fleeing their country? This almost never happens, people do not just up and quit the lands of opportunity….unless the Chinese know something about their country that we outsiders do not know about (see below).
…..

They were discovered after a freighter arrived from Zeebrugge, Belgium at about 06:00 BST and was being unloaded. Essex Police have launched a homicide investigation and officers are being assisted by their Belgian counterparts.

Supt Trevor Roe said staff at the docks were alerted to the container by “screaming and banging” from inside. He said about 50 other containers on
the freighter, called the Norstream, had been searched and no other
people were discovered inside.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Roe told journalists the
survivors were being held under immigration powers and would be taken to
an immigration reception centre near Tilbury. He said they would eventually be interviewed through interpreters.

Belgian police say they believe the lorry which delivered the
container in Zeebrugge has been identified through CCTV footage. They
do not, however, have information yet about where it originated from. Mr Roe said the police investigation would look into “the
gangs or whoever may be involved in this conspiracy to bring these
people in this way over to this country”.


It is not known where the container, one of 64 aboard the
P&O vessel, originated. Mr Roe also said he did not know where the
survivors had been going.

 
At Basildon hospital police vans were parked in between rows of ambulances in a clash of high-visibility stripes and chevrons. At the dropping-off zone in front of the entrance, patients
came and went, glancing up at the news helicopter circling overhead.

Most were aware of the high-security patients being treated
in a cordoned-off section of the accident and emergency unit; the
atmosphere became more relaxed when it became clear that their
conditions were primarily dehydration and hypothermia, and nothing more
serious or contagious.

Immigration and security minister James Brokenshire said the
incident was “a reminder of the often devastating human consequences of
illegal migration”. He said: “We know that criminal gangs are involved in what
amounts to a brutal trade in human lives. We also know that illegal
migration is a Europe-wide issue.

“That is why we work closely and collaboratively with law
enforcement and port authorities, in neighboring countries, to target
criminal networks and ensure that the organised gangs behind trafficking
and people smuggling can’t operate with impunity.”

The East of England Ambulance service, which was called to the
docks at 06:37 BST, sent seven ambulances, two rapid response cars, two
doctors and a hazardous area response team to the scene.

Assistant Chief Officer Daniel Gore from the ambulance
service said none of the people being treated in hospital was thought to
have life-threatening conditions.


Part of Basildon Hospital, where 18 people from the container were taken for treatment, was taped off earlier. On its website, the hospital said its accident and emergency department was “responding to a major incident”.

Seven patients were taken to Southend Hospital while nine were taken to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. South Basildon and East Thurrock MP Stephen Metcalfe described the incident as “tragic”. Mr Metcalfe told the BBC: “The fact that so many people
appear to have traveled so far and are so desperate to get into the UK –
either on their own or being trafficked is really very sad.”


The Conservative MP said it was important “to get to the root
causes of what is motivating people to go to such extreme lengths to
travel from other parts of the world to get into the UK” as well as
tackle people trafficking.

The container was loaded on to the P&O freighter at about 21:30 BST on Friday at Zeebrugge.


A P&O spokeswoman said the Norstream, which had been
scheduled to leave Zeebrugge at 22:00 BST on Friday, was also carrying
72 trailers and five lorries and their drivers.

Public Health England said it was not currently involved and had not been notified of there being any Ebola risk. Essex Ambulance said decontamination units had been set up at
the docks as a precaution, not because of any specific concerns it had. A spokeswoman for the port declined to comment on the incident as it “was a matter for the police and Border Force”.


The ship was sailing on a new service linking Tilbury and Zeebrugge which has only been operational since earlier this month, according to parent company Forth Ports.  

According to the UK Border Force, the number of “clandestine
illegal entry attempts” by people to enter the country via ports in
Belgium and France increased last year to 18,000 from about 11,000 in
the previous 12 months.

The Freight Transport Association said it was “quite unusual”
for stowaways to be found in containers, with most cases involving
people attempting to enter the UK on lorries.


In June 2000, the bodies of 58 Chinese people were found in
the back of a lorry smuggling them into Dover on a ferry from Zeebrugge.
They had died of suffocation.

…..
  
India’s special place in Scottish history is partly a legacy from the
union of Scotland with England in 1707 to create the United Kingdom.
Under the deal, Scotland’s landed families gained access to the East
India Company, and gradually become its dominant force.

Scots
flooded into India as “writers” , traders, engineers, missionaries, tea
and indigo planters, jute traders and teachers. According to Professor
Tom Devine, author of The Scottish Empire, by 1771 almost half of the
East India Company’s writers were Scots, and by 1813, some 19 of
Calcutta’s private merchant houses were dominated by Scots.

Remittances
from India played a key role in making Scotland the most industrialized
country in the world by the mid-19th century, and cities like Dundee
and Paisley were transformed by their trade in jute and textiles with
India.

……

……

Link (1): bbc.com/uk-england-28817688

Link (2): Indias-Scottish-heritage-remembered-in-renovation-of-Calcutta

Link (3): online.wsj.com/articles/the-great-chinese-exodus-1408120906

…..

regards

Once if it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that you have harmed children, we have no sympathy to spare. Put these people behind bars and throw away the keys….for life. We oppose death penalty since there is a chance that the convicted person has been falsely implicated.
…..

….
One exception that troubles our conscience is how we should deal with terrorists. If we jail them, there may be attempts to free  them by taking innocent people hostages (see below). In a democracy you really do not have a choice…as the Head of the Nation, you cannot look scores of families in the eye and tell them that their loved sons, daughters, brothers, sisters will not be coming home in order to preserve some abstract national interest.  

That memorable slogan from 1999…..to hell with the country and the national interest…there is no arguing with that sentiment in good faith…what if it was YOUR daughter who was kidnapped by the terrorists? By the same token, who cares if a terrorist is killed…to hell with your principles...or would YOU rather be the one talking to the widow of Squadron Leader Ahuja?
……

Two
Kolhapur women, who were sentenced to death in 2001 for kidnapping 13
children and killing nine of them, may become the first women ever to be
hanged in India.
……..



President Pranab Mukherjee late last month
rejected Renuka Kiran Shinde and her sister Seema Mohan Gavit’s mercy
petitions. The buffer period before their hanging – time taken by the
state home department to inform all concerned after receiving the note
from Rashtrapati Bhavan – ends on Saturday.
…
The number of
people executed in India since Independence is a matter of dispute.
Government statistics claim that only 52 people have been executed since
independence. However, research by the People’s Union for Civil
Liberties indicates that the actual number of executions is in fact much
higher, as they have located records of 1,422 executions in the decade
from 1953 to 1963 alone. However, there is no record of any woman’s
execution.

While awarding
the death sentence to the sisters in 2001, Judge G L Yedke in Kolhapur
had described the nine kids’ murders as ‘the most heinous’, and observed
that the two sisters seemed to have enjoyed killing the children.
……

The Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi, designated IC
814, with 178 passengers and 11 crew members on board, was hijacked on
Christmas eve, 1999, a short while after it took-off from Tribhuvan
International Airport; by then, the aircraft had entered Indian
airspace. Nine years later to the day, with an entire generation coming
of age, it would be in order to recall some facts and place others on
record.

….
In 1999 I was serving as an aide to Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee in the PMO, and I still have vivid memories of the tumultuous
week between Christmas eve and New Year’s eve. Mr Vajpayee had gone out
of Delhi on an official tour; I had accompanied him along with other
officials of the PMO. …
The hijacking of IC 814 occurred while we were
returning to Delhi in one of the two Indian Air Force Boeings which, in
those days, were used by the Prime Minister for travel within the
country.

….
Curiously, the initial information about IC 814 being hijacked, of
which the IAF was believed to have been aware, was not communicated to
the pilot of the Prime Minister’s aircraft. As a result, Mr Vajpayee and
his aides remained unaware of the hijacking till reaching Delhi. This
caused some amount of controversy later.

…
It was not possible for anybody else to have contacted us while we
were in midair. It’s strange but true that the Prime Minister of India
would be incommunicado while on a flight because neither the ageing IAF
Boeings nor the Air India Jumbos, used for official travel abroad, had
satellite phone facilities.

….
By the time our aircraft landed in Delhi, it was around 7:00 pm, a
full hour and 40 minutes since the hijacking of IC 814. After
disembarking from the aircraft in the VIP bay of Palam Technical Area,
we were surprised to find National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra
waiting at the foot of the ladder. He led Mr Vajpayee aside and gave him
the news. They got into the Prime Minister’s car and it sped out of the
Technical Area. Some of us followed Mr. Vajpayee to Race Course Road,
as was the normal routine.

….
On our way to the Prime Minister’s residence, colleagues in the PMO
provided us with the basic details. The Kathmandu-Delhi flight had been
commandeered by five hijackers (later identified as Ibrahim Athar,
resident of Bahawalpur, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Gulshan Iqbal, resident of
Karachi, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, resident of Defence Area, Karachi, Mistri
Zahoor Ibrahim, resident of Akhtar Colony, Karachi, and Shakir, resident
of Sukkur City) at 5:20 pm; there were 189 passengers and crew members
on board; and that the aircraft was heading towards Lahore.

….
At the Prime Minister’s residence, senior Ministers and Secretaries
had already been summoned for an emergency meeting. Mr Mishra left for
the crisis control room that had been set up at Rajiv Bhavan. In between
meetings, Mr Vajpayee instructed his personal staff to cancel all
celebrations planned for December 25, his birthday. The Cabinet
Committee on Security met late into the night as our long vigil began.

….
Meanwhile, we were informed that the pilot of IC 814 had been denied
permission to land at Lahore airport. With fuel running low, he was
heading for Amritsar. Officials at Raja Sansi Airport were immediately
alerted and told to prevent the plane from taking off after it had
landed there. 

The hijacked plane landed at Amritsar and remained parked on the
tarmac for nearly 45 minutes. The hijackers demanded that the aircraft
be refuelled. The airport officials ran around like so many headless
chickens, totally clueless about what was to be done in a crisis
situation.

…..
Desperate calls were made to the officials at Raja Sansi Airport to
somehow stall the refueling and prevent the plane from taking off. The
officials just failed to respond with alacrity. At one point, an
exasperated Jaswant Singh, if memory serves me right, grabbed the phone
and pleaded with an official, “Just drive a heavy vehicle, a fuel truck
or a road roller or whatever you have, onto the runway and park it
there.” But all this was to no avail.

…..
The National Security Guards, whose job it is to deal with hostage
situations, were alerted immediately after news first came in of IC 814
being hijacked; they were reportedly asked to stand by for any
emergency. The Home Ministry was again alerted when it became obvious
that after being denied permission to land at Lahore, the pilot was
heading towards Amritsar.

….
Yet, despite IC 814 remaining parked at Amritsar for three-quarters
of an hour, the NSG commandos failed to reach the aircraft. There are
two versions as to why the NSG didn’t show up: First, they were waiting
for an aircraft to ferry them from Delhi to Amritsar; second, they were
caught in a traffic jam between Manesar and Delhi airport. The real
story was never known!

…..
The hijackers, anticipating commando action, first stabbed a
passenger, Rupin Katyal (he had gone to Kathmandu with his newly wedded
wife for their honeymoon; had they not extended their stay by a couple
of days, they wouldn’t have been on the ill-fated flight) to show that
they meant business, and then forced the pilot to take off from
Amritsar. With almost empty fuel tanks, the pilot had no other option
but to make another attempt to land at Lahore airport. Once again he was
denied permission and all the lights, including those on the runway,
were switched off. He nonetheless went ahead and landed at Lahore
airport, showing remarkable skill and courage.

…..
Mr Jaswant Singh spoke to the Pakistani Foreign Minister and pleaded
with him to prevent the aircraft from taking off again. But the
Pakistanis would have nothing of it (they wanted to distance themselves
from the hijacking so that they could claim later that there was no
Pakistan connection) and wanted IC 814 off their soil and out of their
airspace as soon as possible. So, they refuelled the aircraft after
which the hijackers forced the pilot to head for Dubai.

….
At Dubai, too, officials were reluctant to allow the aircraft to
land. It required all the persuasive skills of Mr Jaswant Singh and our
then Ambassador to UAE, Mr KC Singh, to secure landing permission. There
was some negotiation with the hijackers through UAE officials and they
allowed 13 women and 11 children to disembark. Rupin Katyal had by then
bled to death. His body was offloaded. His widow remained a hostage till
the end.

….
On the morning of December 25, the aircraft left Dubai and headed
towards Afghanistan. It landed at Kandahar Airport, which had one
serviceable runway, a sort of ATC and a couple of shanties. The rest of
the airport was in a shambles, without power and water supply, a trophy
commemorating the Taliban’s rule.

….
On Christmas eve, after news of the hijacking broke, there was
stunned all-round silence. But by noon on December 25, orchestrated
protests outside the Prime Minister’s residence began, with women
beating their chests and tearing their clothes. The crowd swelled by the
hour as the day progressed.

….
Ms Brinda Karat came to
commiserate with the relatives of the hostages who were camping outside
the main gate of 7, Race Course Road. In fact, she became a regular
visitor over the next few days. There was a steady
clamour that the Government should pay any price to bring the hostages
back home, safe and sound. This continued till December 30.

…..
One evening, the Prime Minister asked his staff to let the families
come in so that they could be told about the Government’s efforts to
secure the hostages’ release. By then negotiations had begun and Mullah
Omar had got into the act through his ‘Foreign Minister’, Muttavakil.
The hijackers wanted 36 terrorists, held in various Indian jails, to be
freed or else they would blow up the aircraft with the hostages.

…..
No senior Minister in the CCS was willing to meet the families. Mr
Jaswant Singh volunteered to do so. He asked me to accompany him to the
canopy under which the families had gathered. Once there, we were
literally mobbed. He tried to explain the situation but was shouted
down.

……
“We want our relatives back. What
difference does it make to us what you have to give the hijackers?” a
man shouted. “We don’t care if you have to give away Kashmir,” a
woman screamed and others took up the refrain, chanting: “Kashmir de do,
kuchh bhi de do, hamare logon ko ghar wapas lao.” Another woman sobbed,
“Mera beta… hai mera beta…” and made a great show of fainting of grief.

…..
To his credit, Mr Jaswant Singh made bold to suggest that the
Government had to keep the nation’s interest in mind, that we could not
be seen to be giving in to the hijackers, or words to that effect, in
chaste Hindi. That fetched him abuse and rebuke. “Bhaand me jaaye desh aur bhaand me jaaye desh ka hit. (To hell with the country and national interest),” many
in the crowd shouted back. Stumped by the response, Mr Jaswant Singh
could merely promise that the Government would do everything possible.

…..
I do not remember the exact date, but sometime during the crisis, Mr
Jaswant Singh was asked to hold a Press conference to brief the media.
While the briefing was on at the Press Information Bureau hall in
Shastri Bhavan, some families of the hostages barged in and started
shouting slogans. They were led by one Sanjiv Chibber, who, I was later
told, was a ‘noted surgeon’: He claimed six of his relatives were among
the hostages.

…..
Dr Chibber wanted all 36 terrorists named by the hijackers to be
released immediately. He reminded everybody in the hall that in the past
terrorists had been released from prison to secure the freedom of Ms
Rubayya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, while he was Home
Minister in VP Singh’s Government. “Why
can’t you release the terrorists now when our relatives are being held
hostage?” he demanded. And then we heard the familiar refrain: “Give
away Kashmir, give them anything they want, we don’t give a damn.”

…..
On another evening, there was a surprise visitor at the PMO: The
widow of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, whose plane was shot down during
the Kargil war. She insisted that she should be taken to meet the
relatives of the hostages. At Race Course Road, she spoke to
mediapersons and the hostages’ relatives, explaining why India must not
be seen giving in to the hijackers, that it was a question of national
honour, and gave her own example of fortitude in the face of adversity.

……
“She has become a widow, now she wants others to become widows. Who
is she to lecture us? Yeh kahan se aayi?” someone shouted from the
crowd. Others heckled her. The young widow stood her ground, displaying
great dignity and courage. As the mood turned increasingly ugly, she had
to be led away. Similar appeals were made by others who had lost their
sons, husbands and fathers in the Kargil war that summer. Col Virendra
Thapar, whose son Lt Vijayant Thapar was martyred in the war, made a
fervent appeal for people to stand united against the hijackers. It fell
on deaf ears.

…..
The media made out that the overwhelming majority of Indians were
with the relatives of the hostages and shared their view that no price
was too big to secure the hostages’ freedom. The Congress kept on slyly
insisting, “We are with the Government and will support whatever it does
for a resolution of the crisis and to ensure the safety of the
hostages. But the Government must explain its failure.” Harkishen Singh
Surjeet and other Opposition politicians issued similar ambiguous
statements.

……
By December 28, the Government’s negotiators had struck a deal with
the hijackers: They would free the hostages in exchange of three dreaded
terrorists — Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar
Sheikh — facing various charges of terrorism.

…..
The CCS met frequently, several times a day, and discussed the entire
process threadbare. The Home Minister, the Defence Minister and the
Foreign Minister, apart from the National Security Adviser and the Prime
Minister, were present at every meeting. The deal was further
fine-tuned, the Home Ministry completed the necessary paper work, and
two Indian Airlines aircraft were placed on standby to ferry the
terrorists to Kandahar and fetch the hostages.

…….
On December 31, the two aircraft left Delhi airport early in the
morning. Mr Jaswant Singh was on board one of them. Did his ministerial
colleagues know that he would travel to Kandahar? More important, was
the Prime Minister aware of it? The answer is both yes and no.

…..
Mr Jaswant Singh had mentioned his decision to go to Kandahar to
personally oversee the release of hostages and to ensure there was no
last-minute problem. He was honour-bound to do so, he is believed to
have said, since he had promised the relatives of the hostages that no
harm would come their way. It is possible that nobody thought he was
serious about his plan. It is equally possible that others turned on him
when the ‘popular mood’ and the Congress turned against the Government
for its ‘abject surrender’.

……
On New Year’s eve, the hostages were flown back to Delhi. By New
Year’s day, the Government was under attack for giving in to the
hijackers’ demand! Since then, this ‘shameful surrender’ is held against
the NDA and Mr Jaswant Singh is painted as the villain of the piece.

……
Could the Kandahar episode have ended any other way? Were an Indian
aircraft to be hijacked again, would we respond any differently? Not
really. As a nation we do not have the guts to stand up to terrorism. We
cannot take hits and suffer casualties. We start counting our dead even
before a battle has been won or lost. We make a great show of honouring
those who die on the battlefield and lionise brave hearts of history,
but we do not want our children to follow in their footsteps.

…..
We are, if truth be told, a nation of cowards who don’t have the
courage to admit their weakness but are happy to blame a well-meaning
politician who, perhaps, takes his regimental motto of ‘Izzat aur Iqbal’
rather too seriously.


…..
  
Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday that there is no set formula for dealing with terrorists.

……..
When asked if India should have a policy not to negotiate with
terrorists, he said that while this worked in principle, in reality,
when the human element came into play, he was unsure of how he would
deal with the crisis.

….
“I do not know how I would have reacted if 150 families came to my
door and pleaded that their loved ones in that aircraft must be saved.
It is easy to criticise but if one is in that position, it is a very
difficult decision,” he said at the NDTV’s Indian of the Year Awards
function in New Delhi on Wednesday night.

….
The NDA government’s decision to release dreaded terrorists in
exchange for hostages in the Kandahar hijack 10 years ago had come under
attack from several quarters but Home Minister P Chidambaram is “not
sure” saying it is a “very difficult” decision.

….
The decision of the Vajpayee government to release three dreaded
terrorists including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar in
December, 1999 received a lot of flak from various political parties
including the Congress, more so because the then external affairs
minister Jaswant Singh accompanied them (terrorists) to Kandahar.

…..
Azhar’s name has subsequently figured in the December 2001 terror
attack on Parliament and the attack outside Jammu and Kashmir Assembly
in Srinagar in the same month. 
 
….

Link (1): http://Two-sisters-from-Maharashtras-Kolhapur-may-become-the-first-women-to-be-hanged-in-India

Link (2): http://kanchangupta.blogspot.in/2009/03/when-indians-let-down-india.html

Link (3): http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/the-hijacking-of-indian-airlines-flight-ic-814-7755

…..

regards