 |
| Monday, January 3, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
|
87th science congress opens today India must have ‘N-deterrent’ Bhattacharjee’s ‘suicide’:reason not clear |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Protest outside Pak Embassy Sugar miller’s murder alarms industry
|
Hijacker wanted smile on their faces HYDERABAD, Jan 2 (UNI) — ‘‘I don’t want you to be glum.... I want smile on your faces’’, was the stern command of the ‘‘chief’’ hijacker to the passengers and the crew of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu to Delhi. Mr Rajendra Kumar Goud, the co-pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, said here today that the hijackers began treating them well once the plane landed at Kandahar. The tension between the passengers and the hijackers eased further after three or four days and the hijackers began reciting Urdu couplets and cracking and sharing jokes. However, when the passengers started playing ‘‘antakshri’’, their ‘‘chief’’ forbade them. Narrating the eight-day ordeal, he said every moment for the passengers and the crew was filled with anxiety. The passengers had told him that Rupin Katyal was killed by the hijackers for not obeying their instructions. Mr Goud said when the plane landed at Amritsar the hijackers were in full strength and made the crew move the aircraft forward and backward and veer it to the right and left to ensure that nobody came near the aircraft. ‘‘Had there been no delay in refuelling at Amritsar, the killing and injuries to the passengers wouldn’t have probably happened. Though we were waiting for the fuel bowser, there was no response. The fuel bowser was kept at a distance of 200 feet from the aircraft. The hijackers were scared that some commandos might be nearing the aircraft and forced the crew to take off to Lahore’’, he said. The ‘‘chief’’ of the hijackers, who refused to identify himself or the place from where he came, mostly spoke in Hindi while deputy chief ‘‘Burger’’ spoke in English. When we asked what their demands were, they said ‘‘we will tell you later’’. ‘‘In fact we did not know about their demand for the release of Masood Azhar and others till the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, arrived at Kandahar’’, Mr Goud said. After the plane reached Kandahar, the cockpit crew were ordered to sit in the cabin and the hijackers took over the cockpit. During the first few days we were disappointed as no Indian representative reached Kandahar for talks and only UN officials were holding negotiations. The hijackers said: ‘‘Your people don’t want to talk to us’’. We felt a bit relieved on the sixth day when the hijackers told us that there was 80 per cent progress in the talks. ‘‘We also told the hijackers to be flexible and not to kill us’’. The hijackers then said that ‘‘we don’t want to kill you unless your government forces us.’’ He said the hijackers panicked when the Taliban military surrounded the aircraft on December 29. Asked if the aircraft was in a position to take-off from Kandahar if the hijackers forced them to do so, he said it was not in a position to take-off due to a leak in the fuel tank. The pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer, however, had a contingency plan — to crash-land on the Kandahar airport’s runway at take-off speed. This would have saved many lives though some could have been killed, Mr Goud said. Before leaving the aircraft, the hijackers wished the crew and passengers a happy and prosperous New Year. |
Gowda seeks inquiry into plane hijack BANGALORE, Jan 2 (PTI) — A former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (S) President, Mr H D Deve Gowda, today criticised the Central Government for its handling of the Indian Airlines hijack crisis and demanded a high-level inquiry to “uncover all facts and fix responsibility for the big blunder”. Expressing “shock” at the way the issue was handled by the Vajpayee government, Mr Gowda, however, said he was happy over the “near bloodless termination” of the hijacking with the safe release of the hostages. “Communication gap, lack of coordination among various wings of the Central Government and inordinate delay to take decisions made the crisis worse and spin out of control,” he alleged in a statement here. The government lost a very good opportunity of saving the situation at Amritsar when the hijackers’ demand was limited to the release of a single terrorist, he claimed. The reason for the government’s delay in sending an official team to Kandahar could not be understood, he said. Mr Gowda criticised the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, for taking the three hardcore militants along with him on a special plane to Kandahar, describing it as “the most disgusting and humiliating” aspect of the whole episode. |
87th science congress opens today PUNE, Jan 2 (PTI) — As many as 4,000 scientists from across the country will take part in the 87th Indian Science Congress to be opened by the Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, tomorrow. The Union Science and Technology Minister, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, the Principal Scientific Adviser to the government, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and two Nobel Laureates would take part in the five-day congress being held here for the third time after 1950 and 1988, Mr RA Mashelkar, President of the congress, told newspersons. The Nobel Laureates, both in chemistry, Richard Ernst (awarded in 1991) and Jean Marie Lehn (awarded in 1987), would be accompanied by noted physicist Mr ECG Sudarshan, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Mr VS Ramamurthy, chief of the Atomic Energy Commission, Mr R Chidambaram, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Kasturirangan, and the Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Mr RS Paroda, at the annual event. The Prime Minister would inaugurate a science exhibition tomorrow displaying the defence technologies used in the Kargil conflict, Mr Mashelkar said. The theme of the science congress is “Indian science and technology into the next millennium”. As many as 22 young Indian scientists had been chosen to deliver talks on the frontier areas of science and technology. The 88th science congress would be held at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi next year, he added. A forum for schoolchildren had been created for the first time this year where experts would interact with students to unravel the wonders of science to the young minds, Mr Mashelkar said. Earlier, inaugurating the children’s forum, he said by 2020 half of the Indian population would be under the age of 20 and such a step would help the country attain a lead in the international knowledge society. Since the average age was increasing in western countries, future innovations that require young minds would come from Indian students, he hoped. A multi-media show where the past five decades of Indian science and technology will be exhibited to the delegates and students is also expected to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister tomorrow at Alandi, 20 km from here, on the banks of the Indryani river. Many industrialists and corporate leaders including Mr Narayan Murthy of Infosys, Mr Rajendra Pawar of the NIIT, Ms Swati Piramal of Nicholas Piramal, Mr Anij Reddy of Reddy Labs and Ms Kiran Majumder of Biocon are taking part in the congress. |
India must have ‘N-deterrent’ NEW DELHI, Jan 2 (PTI) — India should not only possess enough nuclear weapons to “retaliate or inflict destruction” on any aggressor, but also pursue a non-discriminatory and universally applicable agreement for total elimination of nuclear weapons, says an expert on international relations. While India should possess these weapons only as a deterrence, it should be “willing to go along with the rest of the nuclear weapon states, if a non-discriminatory universally applicable agreement for elimination of nuclear weapons can be negotiated,” writes V.N. Khanna, a political scientist in his new book “India’s Nuclear Doctrine”. Supporting his views, noted nuclear scientist and former Union Minister Prof M.G.K. Menon says India “cannot accept a situation of nuclear apartheid or colonialism”. In his foreward to the book Ms Menon says “there is need to ensure that policies relating to the area of nuclear weapons are not treated as political football. We must stand united in the national interest. |
Bhattacharjee’s ‘suicide’:reason not clear NEW DELHI, Jan 2 (PTI) — The Delhi Police has not been able to so far ascertain the exact reason for the “suicide” by well-known theatre personality and news reader Bhaskar Bhattacharjee in South Delhi yesterday. “We have not been able to exactly assess why he committed suicide,” a police officer investigating into the incident said today. The officer said though the preliminary investigations indicated that the 42-year-old Bhattacharjee, an employee of Unicef, was under “stress” for quite some time. “We have not been able to so far record the statement of his wife as she is in deep shock,” the officer said, adding that her statement would be of immense help to conclude on the exact reason for the suicide. Although the local police has registered a case of suicide, every other angle, including murder, is being probed, he said. The mortal remains of Bhattacharjee were cremated at the Nigam Bodh ghat on the banks of Yamuna this morning. |
Protest outside Pak Embassy NEW DELHI, Jan 2 — Activists of the National Akali Dal today held a demonstration outside the Pakistan High Commission here to protest against that country’s involvement in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane. Demonstrators burnt the Pakistani flag and condemned cross-border terrorism. The President of the National Akali Dal, Mr Paramjeet Singh Pamma, who led the demonstrators, said the party wanted the government to stop the Delhi-Lahore bus and deal with militancy in Jammu and Kashmir with a firm hand. |
Sugar miller’s murder alarms industry NEW DELHI, Jan 2 – The brutal murder of a senior executive of one of the largest sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh has sent alarm signals in the sugar industry with the Indian Sugar Mills Association saying that the incident is bound to have an adverse impact on its operations. The vice-president of Triveni Engineering and Industries, S.C.Jaggi, was shot dead at point blank range at Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar district by unidentified assailants in the early hours of December 29. The Indian Sugar Mills Association said the murder of Jaggi had shaken the confidence of the mill executives and work force in the sugar industry and this would bound to hit milling operations in the state. |
 | | Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | In Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 119 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
