US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

India condemns Pakistani missile attack on helicopters

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

India has strongly criticised the missile attack on helicopters which were carrying Indian and foreign journalists to the site of the wreckage of the Breguet Atlantique marine reconnaissance aircraft that was shot down yesterday.

"This is one more provocative and hostile act by Pakistan. It was done with the explicit purpose of preventing the media from reaching the wreckage site and thereby inspecting and proving to the world that the Pakistani combat aircraft had intruded into Indian air space and was subsequently shot down," said external affairs ministry spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal.

A missile was fired at the first helicopter that was carrying CNN correspondent Satinder Bindra who said that though he did not see the flash of the missile being fired, the helicopter dived immediately after the pilot noticed it. "Such a dangerous and steep dive can only be for a very good reason," Bindra said.

India today insisted that the Atlantique was shot down in its airspace. "The Pakistani anti-submarine and maritime reconnaissance aircraft was about 10 km inside when it was engaged by Indian fighters. It was only when the Pakistani took hostile evasive action that we fired at it," said Indian Air Force spokesperson Group Captain D N Ganesh.

Ganesh said the two Indian MiG-21 BIS fighter jets, which had scrambled to intercept the Pakistani intruder, had carried out internationally accepted air manoeuvres known to all aviation personnel and also given hand signals to the Pakistani aircraft.

"The first time, one of the MiG-21s rolled (dipping its wings on both sides), signalling to the Pakistani aircraft to follow it. Then the MiG-21 came back a second time and the Indian pilot drew abreast of the Pakistani plane and gave a hand signal (moving the hand in a rolling fashion) to the Pakistani pilot, thereby signalling him to follow the Indian aircraft and land at the Indian airbase.

"At this point, the Pakistani plane turned towards the Indian MiG-21, forcing the pilot to pull above the Atlantique, and turned away towards Pakistan. Since the aircraft had refused to obey the Indian commands, the pilots had no choice but to shoot the Pakistani aircraft down," said Ganesh.

India today displayed parts of the Atlantique's wreckage in New Delhi. But no bodies had yet been discovered though search operations are on.

Ganesh had an explanation for this. "Whenever an aircraft crashes onto soft land, it tends to go deep inside the land. The area where the Atlantique crashed is marshy area that is under water during high tide. It is quite likely that the heavier parts of the plane have sunk into the marshy land. Also, given the problems with the tide, our search operations are hampered and will take time," he said..

The Indian authorities said that since the beginning of the year, 52 intrusions by Pakistani aircraft had taken place. "But in none of the cases thus far have the intruders been intercepted by the IAF as in the latest, 53rd intrusion. The earlier intruders invariably fled the moment they detected our approaching fighters," said Ganesh.

Jassal said that despite India's best efforts to improve ties with Pakistan, Pakistan's actions were only stalling the efforts. But he did not see the latest incident as a stumbling block between the neigbours. "It was a military operation and was dealt with militarily," he said.

Jassal blasted the attempts by Pakistan to pin the blame on India for shooting what Islamabad claims was an unarmed, slow-moving propeller plane on a training mission in it own airspace. "First, their information minister said it was on a surveillance mission, now their military says it was on a training mission.

"It is a surveillance aircraft, which under an agreement between India and Pakistan in 1991 is categorised as a combat aircraft. Second, why should a training aircraft have to cross the international border or even train so close to the border? These are attempts by Pakistan to fudge the issue," he said.

He pointed out that New Delhi and Islamabad had signed a deal by which all military aircraft on both sides would stay at least 10km away from the border. "Even Pakistan admits that it did not keep its agreement," he said.

Rear Admiral S C Bangara, who also addressed the media, too criticised Pakistan's fudging attempts. "This plane is an anti-submarine aircraft, so what was it doing over land in the first place?" he asked, adding that in military parlance worldwide, the Atlantique was considered a combat aircraft and no country would tolerate an intrusion by any military aircraft.

"The Atlantique is known to carry sophisticated electronic sensing equipment that can fingerprint the radar set-up, intercept radio and radar messages, and locate ships and aircraft besides carrying arms and ammunition that pose a dangerous threat. And when the pilot took hostile evasive action, we had no choice. If Pakistan had nothing to fear, then why did they not land as we had signalled," asked Bangara.

The rear admiral also wanted to know why an Atlantique was being used for training and why it was carrying a full complement of people. "You carry 16 people on board when there is a surveillance mission undertaken," the rear admiral pointed out.

Tell us what you think of this report