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Hijack rumours cause chaos at Calcutta

Mohammad Javed R in Calcutta

Calcutta was abuzz with rumours of an attempted plane hijacking, thanks to the immigration guide of the Calcutta airport who arrested 11 Israeli nationals on Tuesday suspecting them to be hijackers.

There was confusion and chaos at the Calcutta airport as the news of their arrest spread.

The Israelis were arrested minutes before they were to catch a Bangladesh Biman's Dhaka-bound flight.

However, after hours of detention and thorough interrogation by the airport's immigration guide, the officials realised that they were wrong and the 'hijackers' were actually innocent Israeli citizens holidaying in India for the past two months.

Speaking to rediff.com, Calcutta airport's Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar said that all the Israelis, residents of Tel Aviv, arrived in New Delhi in two batches on November 13 and 17 last year.

"They also stayed for a short period in Bhopal and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh before heading back to Delhi where they boarded the New Delhi-Calcutta 2301 Poorva Express on Monday," he added.

Justifying the immigration authorities' decision to detain them, Dr Kumar said, "All the 11 Israelis had long beards, similar to those of Afghan militants. Initially we mistook their documents as forged since they had been staying in India for over two months. After the hijack of IC 814, we just didn't want to take any chances. Also, as none of them could speak English, they failed to give satisfactory replies to the officers on duty."

Of the 11 arrested, two were identified as G R Haleeli and Moosa Sami. All of them were finally released at 2030 hours on Wednesday.

The Israelis later left for Dhaka in Bangladesh Biman's BG091.

Interestingly, when rediff.com contacted Chief Minister Jyoti Basu at his Salt lake residence to elicit his opinion on the drama that lasted nearly two days, he said he had no information about the arrests.

He said he would ask his Home Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya about this tomorrow. When told about the release of the arrested Israelis, the octogenarian CM said, "Fine, what's the problem then?"

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