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HIJACKING At Kathmandu airport a diplomat passes a bag to a transit passenger ... By Farzand Ahmed
At the best of times the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu is a madhouse. Last October, a mentally deranged visitor thought it was his natural habitat. He ambled into the airport, strolled casually through what feigned to be security, meandered his way through the tarmac and finally lodged himself comfortably in the cockpit of a parked Thai Airways aircraft. "We have the best security arrangements at TIA," says Nepal's Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka. At noon a day before Christmas, a car with a slightly grand number plate, 42-CD-14, drew up before the airport. Two gentlemen, one with an undistinguished cabin baggage, strolled into the departure lounge, walked officiously past the passengers awaiting the departure of a delayed Indian Airlines flight to Delhi and went briskly up the stairs to the VIP lounge. Anxiously awaiting them was a "transit" passenger who had arrived by PK 806 some three hours earlier. The three exchanged meaningful glances and the bag changed hands. A few minutes later a satisfied Arshad Chima, first secretary in the Pakistan Embassy, was negotiating his way back to work through Kathmandu's bazaar traffic. The "transit" passenger spent the next two hours anxiously eyeing the trickle of passengers crossing the unmanned metal detectors to await the boarding call for IC 814 to Delhi. Like the others, S.A. Qazi too collected his boarding pass and strolled into the departure area, where he was joined by the transit passenger and three others. The contents of the bag were discreetly distributed. When the flight was finally announced, all five entered the aircraft. There were 178 passengers on board the flight to Delhi; only 177 submitted their embarkation cards. "Yes, there was a transit passenger from the PIA flight who may have been counted as an extra crew. Also, there's nothing unusual in diplomats frequenting the departure area. Beyond that I can't say anything," said a harried TIA General Manager Medini Prasad Sharma. The identity of the transit passenger still remains a mystery. He may have been Ahmad Sheikh, Qazi's co-passenger in the executive class, or S.A. Sayyed or Z.I. Mistri. There is a presumption that the group may have included Gajendra Man Tamrakar, a Nepali businessman -- some say smuggler -- and small-time TV comedian. Chima's name had been linked to the 20-kg RDX haul in 1998 which was meant for India. And he is not the first Pakistani diplomat accused of running a local office for the ISI. In 1994 Gul Rehman, the political secretary, and Imtiaz, the third secretary, in the Pakistani Embassy, were found to patronise Hotel Karnali, a well-known ISI base. Kathmandu airport is chaotic during check-in, there's no transit lounge or proper security. But Assistant Civil Aviation Minister Narain Singh Pun argues, "We have the best facilities. Yet there can be some human error." Whatever be the case, all officials on duty at the time IC 814 took off have been suspended. There were 250 people at work on the second shift at the airport that day. Some months ago their colleagues had been suspended for escorting gold smugglers to an aircraft. A six-member commission has been set up to investigate the lapses at the TIA. The inquiry team is headed by former police chief Hem Bahadur Singh. Despite these impressive credentials, Singh's appointment has left the Nepal Government with egg on its face. Soon after his retirement, he had rented out his house to Mirza Dilshad Beg, the slain minister linked to Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI. Singh, however, denies any complicity with the underworld, "When I rented out my house in 1990 to Beg, then an MP, I didn't know his background. When I found out that Babloo Srivastava was living there I got the house vacated." Srivastava, another Dawood associate, is of course in an Indian jail now. The Nepal Government had initially asked three retired judges to head the inquiry panel. All of them refused. Singh was the fourth choice. To some this is evidence of the fact that important people in Nepal may not want the unravelling of the nexus between influential locals and their ISI partners. Like IC 814, the inquiry could be a flight into darkness.
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