M A I N   N E W S

IAF, intel experts debunk 9/11-type attack theory
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 16
India’s key intelligence agency and military analysts are not alarmed over claims made by former US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot, who said the missing Malaysian Airlines plane was hijacked to replicate a 9/11-type attack on an Indian city. A top official in the Indian intelligence set-up, said Talbot’s claims were ‘pure speculation’.

Another official said the claim was without any concrete evidence and wondered if Talbot would have any access to real-time intelligence gathered by the US or its allies. On Sunday morning, Strobe Talbot used micro-blogging site Twitter to claim “Malaysian plane mystery: Direction, fuel load & range now lead some to suspect hijackers planned a 9/11-type attack on an Indian city”. He then followed it up with another tweet saying the hijackers were headed towards India but crashed just like the third plane involved in the 2001 attacks on the US.

“Malaysian#370 as hijack: 1 of many theories. Speculation: hijackers headed toward India but crashed like UA#93 on 9/11,” he tweeted.

The UA-93 was one the flights hijacked on September 11 in the US. Its hijackers, however, were overpowered and the plane had crashed in the open fields killing 44.

Air Marshall (retd) Pranab Kumar Barbora, a former Vice-Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), said: “As of now, I would take Talbot’s statement with a pinch of salt, unless the US comes up with some evidence.” Almost on same lines, Lt Gen (retd) Vinod Bhatia, who retired in February this year as Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) said: “It was not possible to overfly India without being detected, the claim is far-fetched.” In any case, Talbot’s claims will re-open the debate in military and security circles on gaps in ‘air defence’. Two issues need attention: First to have air defence surveillance radars spanning the length and breadth of the country. Secondly, more and more radars should remain switched on 24x7. Currently, all four high- powered radars on the Andaman Nicobar islands are not switched on together. It’s a rotational system. The western front has four layers of surveillance that trigger immediate retaliation by guns, missiles and fighter aircraft. Along the coast, however, there are gaps. “ Yes, there are gaps elsewhere. We need to cover them,” admitted Air Marshall Barbora. On the east coast there are long range Israeli -origin green pine radars, but these are not switched on round-the-clock. The five radars of Airports Authority India at Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad , Chennai and Mumbai are integrated with IAF's air defence network.

A senior IAF functionary said the southern peninsula has no fighter jets that can be scrambled to bring down incoming flying objects while on the western front even a weather balloon sees jets being scrambled.

In the South, high-values assets like refineries, oil rigs, ports, gas drill rigs are heavily protected with surface-to-air missiles while Navy warships have their own air defence system.