E-Paper
On IC-814 flight Kandahar hijack, ex-Indian diplomat says 'totally Pakistan's involvement'
Former Indian High Commissioner said the hijack was executed by Pakistan's spy agency ISI. He also explains the country's duplicity and the role of then Taliban
Reacting to the controversy over new Netflix series 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack', former Indian high commissioner to Islamabad Gopalaswami Parthasarathy said the hijack was totally Pakistan's handwork and the terror group al Qaeda was not involved.
The new web series has been accused of giving a clean chit to Pakistan's spy agency the Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI) by linking the hijackers involved with Afghanistan and al Qaeda.
“It was totally Pakistani involvement. The terrorists involved were Pakistanis, the terrorists released were Pakistanis. There is no question of al Qaeda, that is the farthest thing to say," the former diplomat said in an interview with India Today.
Also read | Remembering IC-814 hijacking and birth of Pak terror monster Masood Azhar
Parthasarathy added that the Afghanistan-based terror group did not have a good relationship with Pakistan to the extent that they could carry out the hijack. Parthasarathy suspected that some individual terrorists may have operated from that country as the “Taliban then was an extension of the ISI”.
Explaining the Pakistan's government's response to the crisis, he termed it as “duplicitous” and not following its words through actions. "Telling us that they would do the right thing and then not following through. Days into the hijacking, I wanted to send my officer to Kandahar, but the Pakistan government played all sorts of games,” he said.
Also read | Amid IC-814 row, cabin crew chief slams Netflix series makers: 'It was painful'
The former diplomat accused Pakistan of delaying his flight from capital Islamabad to Lahore, when he was prepared to visit the hijacked plane. “ISI had a very close relationship, they collaborated throughout the hijacking”, he said. Lahore, Amritsar and Dubai are locations where the flight was diverted before landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Parthasarathy said it is hard to blame the then Indian government for releasing the terrorists from Indian jail as the hijackers were armed and lives of Indian passengers were at stake. “It would have been irresponsible to try something militarily at that point of time. We were not willing to take risk with our own people” he added.
