US dubbed NDA IC-814 trade off as ‘defeat’

An ignominious decision, and defeat — this is how the US described the NDA government’s trade- off of three dreaded terrorists for the 194 passengers and crew of Indian Airlines flight IC- 814 in 1999.

That the US government was itself hardly interested in sharing information pertaining to the hijack plot when the UPA government came to power in 2004 is another matter. These are the latest revelations pouring out of the secret cables released by WikiLeaks.

“ The previous NDA government’s decision to trade IC-814 passengers for terrorists in Indian jails was an ignominious decision, and defeat. The UPA wants at least to learn what the hijackers, who they believe are in our custody, know of the operation,” wrote US official Robert Blake in a cable on November 18, 2005.

In 2005, India sought information on Mansoor Akhtar, minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban government, and Akhtar Usmani, Taliban corps commander in Kandahar.

The Union government wanted to ascertain the role played by Afghan Taliban authorities in the plot. It wanted the US to provide the photo of IC-814 conspirator Abdul Rauf and evidence relating to the landing of the hijacked plane in Lahore.

But the US cables showed that the Americans were not keen to divulge the details, and called the Indian requests fishing expeditions. “ We need to bring an end to this cycle of requests, and a clear negative response would be preferable to a fruitless dialogue. The FBI will not agree to requests it deems fishing expeditions,” a US cable of May 13, 2005, said.

The US was also frustrated with the CBI not passing on information about the hijack to it. The US wanted to try the plotters on its soil as one of its citizens was on the plane. To date, no one has been indicted in the US in the IC-814 case.

India too hasn’t been able to get to the real masterminds.