New Delhi, September 10
India’s two strategic ministries, the Defence and the Home, have been pushed into silence over the “diplomatic” release of a planeload of arms, missiles, ammunition and explosives, which a UAE military aircraft was ferrying to China. The plane flew off from Kolkata this morning.

It was not allowed to fly over Indian land fearing a “Purulia arms drop” kind of situation in the northeast. Rather it flew over the Bay of Bengal as it was carrying explosives, confirmed a source. The plane, a C-130 Hercules transporter, had been detained on Sunday night at Kolkata where it had landed for re-fuelling.

Senior officials in both ministries are tightlipped over the developments and are feigning ignorance about the incident. Sources confirmed that clutch of security agencies handled by these two ministries were clearly “unhappy” and were under immense pressure to keep quiet. The “diplomatic” channels of a “friendly” country were working overtime to let-off the plane which surely was in the “suspicious” category, said a source.

Strangely, officials of both ministries today denied having any knowledge about the nature of cargo on board the plane. This is despite the fact that sleuths of the Intelligence bureau had boarded the plane and interrogated the nine-member crew. The military liaison unit at the Kolkata airport also inspected the cargo. Besides this a team of the customs department that comes under the finance ministry also inspected the cargo.

The pilot has reportedly told investigators that he was a mere “courier” and would often fly weapons to China for “testing”, sources said while pointed out that the plane was released even as several questions remained unanswered. Crucially, the origin of the cargo and its destination were doubtful. Was it a covert operation of some other country’s agency that was exposed accidentally by Indian agencies?

Suspicion is that part of the weapons could be US-made sophisticated weapons and were being procured by China for “reverse engineering”. This is a process by which China even engineered, rather “copied” Russian fighter aircraft a few years ago. Some of this could be the very latest in weaponry and could alter the regional balance and may spell trouble form India.

It is still not clear as to why did the plane not reveal its cargo or its point of destination (the city) in China. Two days ago, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna had accepted the plea of the UAE government that it was a “technical error”. It was only on landing here that the pilot declared his cargo.

The plane was carrying rifles, explosives and combat missiles. It has carrying capacity of more than 85 tonnes and was packed to the top, said a source. The plane cargo hold was not secured and sealed as is required under Indian law for aircraft carrying such cargo.

Agencies also believe that the cargo may not have been loaded in the UAE and the needle of suspicion is pointing to another country. It is not sure if the plane flew in to Kolkata directly from the UAE or had a halt en route.