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With the Kandahar hijacking episode still fresh in their memory, several passengers of the 'hijacked' Alliance Air flight expressed anguish and disgust over government attributing the incident to a 'false alarm'.
"This is not the way to test how the security apparatus functions. If a real hijack takes place, what will happen," said an angry K Jain, a passenger of CD-7444 flight from Bombay to Delhi, alighting from the aircraft after nearly a four-hour captivity.
While some passengers felt that the entire exercise was 'mock', a few others termed it as hundred per cent real 'hijack'.
"We were told by some commandos that we are safe now," said Darshan Singh, another passenger.
He added, "We were also conveyed that two of the hijackers had been nabbed."
However, chaos and confusion reigned supreme at the Delhi's Palam airport, which witnessed the four-hour long 'hijack' drama with a few anxious relatives having a verbal duel with senior police officials arguing about the black out of the news.
Even though Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said that the entire episode was a 'false alarm', an Alliance Air official, refusing to be identified, claimed, 'it was real hijack and the elite National Security Gaurd Commandos entered the aircraft through the landing gear into the cockpit and nabbed the two hiajckers'.
Another passenger Anil Kumar Bhandari said, "We suspected something was wrong as there was an abrupt halt to the aircraft after it landed at the Delhi Airport."
Narrating the incident, he said, "The entire lights inside the plane went off and we saw several vehicle with sirens atop approaching the aircraft. However, we were not sure as to what had happened."
Another passenger Anil Golcha, however, refused to believe that it was a mock exercise.
"It did not look like a mock exercise. The way they (commandos) beat up a passenger... was not a fake thing," he said.
RELATED REPORTS: Bizarre 'hijack' drama ends peacefully Alliance Air Bombay-Delhi flight hijacked Crisis Management Group meeting in progress Govt for quick end to hijack drama Passengers unaware of plane being hijacked
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