Was India Under International Pressure To Pay Kandhar Plane Hijackers?

Since the time Jaswant Singh has come out with his book talking about the Kandhar Hijack crisis, there has been a debate over the whole issue. In his Book Jaswant Singh, the then External affairs minister who was one the plane accompanying terrorists like Masood Azhar, Umar Sheikh to hand them over in exchange for the hostages has written that ransom money was one of the demands of the Hijackers. But was the money paid by the Indian government is the million dollar question?

Now in yet another twist to the whole Kandhar controversy, senior Congress leader R.K. Anand has that the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had “carried” more than $ 200 million to the hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in 1999 “under international pressure”.

Anand’s charge was that the money had come from the “international community” via Switzerland because the Swiss “currency king” Robert Giori was among the 161 passengers held hostage by the hijackers for one week.

“There was pressure from the US and Switzerland to secure Giori’s release for any amount of money,” he said. The BJP has however rejected the charges baseless and false and said Anand had withdrawn similar allegations on the floor of Parliament in December, 2004.