CBI team in Dubai to probe hijacking of IA aircraft

DUBAI, Nov 9: A two-member CBI team is here in connection with investigations into last year’s Christmas-eve hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft.

The team comprises CBI Joint Director R N Sawani and Superintendent of Police M K Narayanan.

Talking to Gulf Today, Mr Sawani said the team’s visit had nothing to do with any bilateral investigative procedure. It is the first trip by a CBI team to Dubai in connection with the hijacking case.

"We are here to look into small technical matters which need to be tied up to be presented before the court", Mr Sawani said. The team’s work was basically with the Indian diplomatic mission here to know what really happended when the plane landed here and which mission staff were involved in handling the emergency situation.

The IC-814 Flight was commandeered by militants while on a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi. It was first taken to Amritsar and then brought to Al Minhad base off Dubai, after the Omani authorities refused it permission to land at Muscat.

After releasing more than twenty passengers, most of them women and children, the hijackers got the aircraft refuelled and took it to Kandahar in Afghanistan, setting off one of the longest hijacking drama in aviation history. The hijacking ended when the Indian Government set free some of the associates of the hijackers in Indian jails to secure the safe release of the passengers.

Asked whether the CBI team would be visiting the Al Minhad airbase, where the body of the lone casualty in the hijacking incident Rupin Katyal, was dumped by the hijackers, Mr Sawani said "we have absolutely no plans to visit the airbase as we have no reason to visit that place".

The CBI team yesterday met Consul General of India in Dubai Asoke Mukerji. The team had not met any local official so far, said Mr Sawani, who was also incharge of the team which probed the match-fixing scandal in India and submitted its report to the Government recently.

"Let us see, all depends on the Ambassador (Mr K C Singh)", he said when asked whether the team would meet any local official during the course of its visit. (UNI)

Delay in rescuing Kursk
Russia’s commander blames lapse in time

MOSCOW, Nov 9: Faced with flak from critics for delaying operations to rescue those on board the nuclear submarine Kursk, Russia’s northern fleet commander has blamed the lapse in time due to the non-availability of precise information and equipped rescue vessels.

In an unusually candid interview to Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov said the rescue operations were launched a few hours after the accident occurred on August 12 though information of the missing communication link was obtained by the ground control centre within seconds of the disaster. "But we first wanted to know the exact place where the submarine might be located as the rescue operations could commence only after that," he told defence analyst Viktor Baranets, a correspondent with the daily.

The first task confronting the Russian Navy was to locate the site where the submarine had sunk with 118 crew members on board, he said. "At times such operations can take several weeks but we succeeded in locating it in four hours."

A search team nearby was despatched. Unfortunately, "it was a search party and not a rescue one," the Admiral said. The Russian flagship, Pyotr Veliki, which took part in the operations was not equipped with the necessary rescue equipment.

The ground-based link office came to know about a crack in the bow of Kursk from where water had flooded the chambers of the doomed vessel. "We did not ask the rescue team to inspect the bow since our first priority was to open the hatch of the ninth chamber where the crew, in such an unforeseen eventuality, could have taken shelter," the Admiral explained. The ninth chamber has enough space to accommodate a large number of people.

Like other submarines, the Kursk too contained a floating rescue chamber, the main rescue unit. "If the tragedy had not been so catastrophic, the entire crew consisting of 118 sailors could have entered it and the rescue chamber — like the pilot’s seat in a plane — could have ejected from the sub. But it was placed in the second chamber and the crew in the first and second chambers had lost their lives within seconds, not minutes, I repeat," he declared.

According to Admiral Popov, the explosion had cut off the rescue chamber from the other chambers and the survivors might have lived for a few hours more, not beyond than that.

Reminded of his initial comment on the sinking of the kursk that the submarine had been deliberately sunk, he said, "I never go back on my word." Defending his stand, he said from day one, defence experts and naval top brass had stuck to their theory that Kursk was hit by a foreign submarine.

Proferring reasons for his allegation, he said it was the practice among the big naval powers to shadow the submarines of other nations carrying out naval exercises. Two US submarines were observed to have been present at the site on the fateful day further, the Russian demand for international inspection of the suspected American submarine was flatly turned down by pentagon compounding Russia’s suspicions.

The full picture, he said, of the Kursk disaster will only come to light when the submarine is brought to the surface, he said. (UNI)

India to explore crude purchase from Vietnam

HANOI, Nov 9: In a bid to step up flagging bilateral economic cooperation, India has agreed to explore the purchase of crude oil and phosphate from Vietnam while the latter has expressed willingness to examine opening up its banking channels.

These were among the major decisions taken at the tenth Bilateral Joint Commission meeting on technical, scientific and economic cooperation which concluded here yesterday, official sources said.

The meeting, headed by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his counterpart Nguyen Dy Nien, noted that trade and commercial ties between the two countries were not commensurate with the warm and close political and diplomatic relations between them.

Bilateral trade amounts to about 150 million dollars, of which Indian exports account for about 140 million dollars and Vietnamese for about 11 million dollars.

Both sides agreed that there was a need to boost bilateral trade by diversifying products and services.

As per the minutes of the meeting, Vietnam will import software, machinery, steel products and services and India will buy more non-ferrous metalware, silk and fine art products from Vietnam.

The meeting reviewed activities of the Joint Commission since its ninth meeting in New Delhi in February last year and exchanged notes about the use of credits granted by the Indian Government to Vietnam.

Mr Jaswant Singh also said that India would send to Vietnam medicines worth Rs 3.5 million on grant basis in view of the recent floods in the country.

If India ultimately agrees to buy crude oil and phosphate for its fertiliser plants from Vietnam, it would help redress the tilt in the balance of trade, officials say.

Apart from these areas, the JCM also decided to step up bilateral cooperation in the fields of agriculture, especially biotechnology, animal husbandry, information technology and telecommunications.

India has expressed willingness to extend all cooperation to vietnam in the field of information technology and to expedite implementation of the decision announced in December 1999 to help set up software centres in this country.

Expressing satisfaction with the meeting, both sides described it as "very successful". (UNI)

Thai listed as best top-ten airlines in Asia-Pacific

BANGKOK, Nov 9: Thai Airways International PLC (Thai), the national carrier, has been ranked as one of the best top-ten airliners in Asia and the Pacific, Thai President Bhisit Kusla Sayanon announced today.

Bhisit told TNA that international passengers had placed thai as one of the best top-ten airlines in the region in many areas, including its economy-class services, attendants services, catering services, and accumulation of travelling miles.

Business travellers Asia-Pacific magazine, which conducted the year 2000 survey, published the results in its October edition, he said.

The survey showed that international passengers consider maintaining airlines high quality and standard of services as an important factor, he noted.

Bhisit said that the same survey also found that Bangkok was also ranked as one of ten cities in the world which have best restaurants for those wanting to have their breakfast, lunch and dinner outside.

Bangkok was also placed as one of ten cities which have best tourist and recreation sites, he disclosed.

Six hotels in Bangkok were also ranked as the best ones for business persons, said the Thai top executive. (TNA)

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