High-Level Revamp: Anti-Hijack Panel to Now Include PMO Brass

NEW DELHI: The government has revamped its high-level anti-hijack panel to include top officials the Prime Minister’s Office, especially National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who will be empowered to coordinate any immediate military response.

ET has reliably gathered that this freshly reconstituted panel called the Committee of Secretaries on Aircraft Hijack (COSAH) will also have Nripendra Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister and P K Mishra,additional principal secretary as its members.

However, as per the order dated April 11, the panel will continue to be headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha despite presence of senior PMO officials.

The government had come under considerable criticism for replacing the Cabinet Secretary with the NSA as head of the Strategic Policy Group last September. It was argued that the move gave the NSA unbridled powers, which are beyond the checks that apply on a cabinet secretary. This group was created following the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee in 1999.

The anti-hijack panel was always headed by the cabinet secretary along with secretaries of home and defence as its members. It included commissioner of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Director General of Civil Aviation. It was modelled after the National Crisis Management Committee. The fresh order besides upgrading the membership also states that a control room will be set up within the Cabinet Secretariat in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Heads of R&AW and the Intelligence Bureau will also be members.

The newly constituted panel will have as many as 15 top officials including pre-identified nominated members who can represent regular members in case they cannot be present.

“NSA who has been instrumental in several operations in the recent past has been made part of the panel to coordinate response with security and defence forces in cases of aircraft hijacks,” a senior government official said.

While there have been no major incidents of hijack, alarm bells rang just after the Pulwama attack in February when the BCAS sounded a high alert after an anonymous call claimed that an Indian Airlines flight could be hijacked to Pakistan.

In 2016, India had amended the 1982 Anti-Hijacking Act to classify a credible “threat” to hijack an aircraft as equivalent to hijacking. The definition of ‘hijacking’ was also expanded to make any person, who many not actually participate in the hijacking but “directs” someone else to do so as equally liable. The Act allows for capital punishment if the hijacking leads to the death of a hostage, security personnel, or any person not involved in the offence.

Source: ET

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