The Indian Army was ready with battle tanks in Amritsar to take on the terrorists who had hijacked the Indian Airlines flight IC-814. When the flight landed in Amritsar running short of fuel, the Indian Army was getting battle ready with three tanks lined up for a showdown at the Amritsar airport, said Retd Brigadier, Kuldip Singh, who was commanding this troop.
Brigadier Kuldip Singh of the Indian Army was commanding an armoured regiment in Amritsar in December 1999 when the Indian Airlines aircraft was hijacked. In an editorial in Mail Today, Singh writes that he was in Amritsar when the hijackers took off the plane from Amritsar after a brief halt.
Singh writes in his editorial, "I was commanding an armoured regiment in Amritsar at that time. Just past 7 pm, a senior officer of the formation we were under, called, gave me a brief run down on what was transpiring, and asked me to move a couple of tanks towards the airport and await further orders. We were still on post-Kargil alert and soon I had three tanks (a troop) suitably armed rumbling towards the airport. The tanks halted at a crossing point on a drain south of the airport and waited for orders, and some minutes later, the aircraft took off for Lahore."
Recalling how the sensational hijack unfolded after the flight took off from Kathmandu, Nepal, Singh writes that at 7:51 pm, the aircraft took off from the Amritsar airport, "thereby closing the window for an operation".
After Pakistan denied the hijacked aircraft a landing space, the IC-814 pilot was forced to land in Amritsar due to fuel shortage.
Singh writes, "The aircraft touched down at Amritsar at about 7:05 pm, providing the Government of India an opportunity to intervene. At about 7:40 pm, there were reports that the hijackers had started killing passengers. At 7:51, the aircraft, which had been carefully monitored from the time it was hijacked, took off from Amritsar, thereby closing the window for an operation."
The Army had also "placed some specially trained infantry platoons on alert".
"Thus, in absence of the National Security Guard, in addition to the "Punjab Police commandos", adequate well-trained forces were placed near the airport for a coordinated operation," wrote Retd Brigadier Kuldip Singh.
He further talks about "sparse intelligence" and lack of clarity, which led to everyone assuming the worst scenario.
The Army officer also says that had the Indian government intervened in the matter, "it would have been for the greater good of the country".
Kuldip Singh further blames the relatives of the passengers who were held hostage for putting pressure on the Vajpayee government and "prevented negotiators from progressively wearing down the hijackers".