ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

'PM learnt about hijacking 40 minutes late'

Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav today claimed he and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not know about the hijacking 40 minutes after it took place on Friday.

Vajpayee and Yadav were returning from Patna after addressing an election rally when the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 was hijacked over Lucknow and taken to Amritsar.

He said officials made no attempt to get in touch with them on board prime minister's special aircraft and they were not briefed even when they landed in Delhi. ''I learnt about the hijacking only after I reached home,'' Yadav told Zee TV today.

He said he would not like to blame his ministry officials, for it must have been a tense situation and such mistakes happen.

The minister denied he had held principal secretary to the prime minister Brajesh Mishra and cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar responsible for the Amritsar 'fiasco.'

He also said he had sent a joint secretary to investigate what happened at Kathmandu and found that the Indian Airlines officials were not at fault for any security lapse.

He said he had no knowledge whether the Research and Analysis Wing or the Intelligence Bureau had warned his ministry about the possibility of a hijacking.

UNI

NIGHTMARE ON FLIGHT 814
The complete coverage

Tell us what you think of this report