NEW DELHI, June 12 (UPI) -- India, in a campaign to prevent hijacking, has toughened its anti-hijacking policy to allow security forces to aggressively pursue hijackers.
This measure will do away with the need for National Security Guards to requisition an aircraft and place commandos on board in order to pursue and possibly storm hijacked aircraft, the Hindu newspaper reported Monday.
"With the government nod for the latest proposal of the security agencies and the civil aviation ministry, it would mean that NSG commandos face zero time loss in looking for a passenger aircraft at the airport for transporting them in a case of a hijack," the NSG said.
"Precious time is lost in requisitioning an aircraft and going through the procedural rigmarole," said the Indian interior ministry said. It cited the case of a hijacking during the previous regime when NSG commandos had to be rushed to the city of Amritsar where a hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft could neither be prevented from taking off nor accessed in time by commandos to rescue passengers.
"The idea is not to disrupt the flights where passengers have already boarded and cause a disruption," the ministry said.
India had faced an embarrassment when militants recently hijacked a passenger aircraft from Kathmandu and demanded the release of a few terrorists lodged in Indian jails. The hijacked aircraft was returned safely after the government released the militants.
