Either way the situation would have ended. We could have stormed the aircraft and would have killed or captured the hijackers, perhaps with a few lives lost or they would have surrendered. The day Osama bin Laden declared that India was an enemy state, along with the United States and Russia, we should have taken precautions. And especially so in those places where we do not have total control such as Kathmandu and Dhaka, and which are known terrorist transit zones. When Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani was asked whether the Indian government was considering a military action a la Entebbe after it was clear that the hijackers had killed a passenger, he refused to answer in the positive or in the negative.
Every Israeli aircraft carries armed commandos who are disguised as passengers.
These commandos are trained to take action during such situations. We don't have any such plan,'' he explained. Second, India has no procedure to deal with the situation. Maj Gen Karim and others have blamed this cumbersome and slow decision-making process as the cause for not taking immediate action when the aircraft was in Amritsar. We could have anticipated the landing in Amritsar, and had a force ready to immediately take action.