Anti-hijack policy approved by Cabinet, death for hijacking

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) India Friday decided to make the
anti-hijacking law more stringent by approving amendments to
include death sentence as a punishment and powers to shoot
down a hijacked plane intended to be used as a missile to hit
vital installations.
The Union Cabinet, at a meeting headed by Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh Friday, approved these changes for
being incorporated in the Anti-hijacking Act of 1982.
A Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P
Chidambaram had earlier examined the proposals to amend the
existing law to include these aspects as well as the
conspiracy to hijack an aircraft.
The new policy, which is likely to be included in the
amendment, seeks to provide a legal backing for extraordinary
move like shooting down an aircraft whose hijack has been
established and the hijackers intend to target vital
installation by using it as a missile like what had happened
in New York on September 11, 2001.
The policy also provides for immobilisation of the
plane and disallowing it to take off if the hijack occurs on
the Indian soil.
During the Kandahar hijack in December 1999, 178
passengers and 11 crew members were exchanged for four dreaded
terrorists, including Maulana Masood Azhar who later floated
the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Pakistan.
At that time, security forces had failed to immobilise
the plane when it had landed at Amritsar airport. PTI ARC
DDC