New Delhi, [India], April 27 : On the 37th Foundation Day of the Bureau Of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on Thursday, Director General (DG) of BCAS Zulfiquar Hasan said that "Today is a very important day for aviation security to ensure the top class security for aviation with zero error. We are proud that we are doing our job very sincerely."
"Be a security and anti-hijacking agency of the country we are making every effort to avoid hijacking incidents in the modern threat era, there is no such incident reported on the country as the world has reported on it," he told .
On the sideline of the event, DG BCAS further praised Indian aviation security, "No hijacking has happened in the 21st century, no major incident has happened in aviation in India but a lot has happened in rest of the world," he said.
BCAS was born soon after multiple hijackings of Indian carriers, and an Indian plane was targeted by the terrorist orgsation.
"On the 23rd of June 1985, 329 people boarded the Air India 182 Montreal-London-Delhi-Bombay flight which took off ironically from the city where the ICAO is based - Montreal. It blew up at 31000 feet over the Atlantic", BCAS DG said in the opening speech.
In addition, BCAS DG Zulfiquar Hasan add in his opening remarks about how Indian carriers were on target in terrorist orgsations.
"India's first incident of hijacking dates back to the January 30th, 1971 when two Kashmiri separatists hijacked the Srinagar-Jammu flight and took it to Lahore. They belonged to the National Liberation Front (NLF)- which soon morphed into the JKLF and dominated terrorism in Kashmir. The architect behind this was Maqbool Butt," DG said.
"This was followed by eight sensational hijackings concluding in the Kshka tragedy and formation of BCAS."
The biggest aviation challenge which BCAS and the country have faced is undoubtedly the IC814 Tribhuvan-New Delhi Flight of December 24th, 1999 which was hijacked to Kandahar. The weeklong hijack drama culminated in the release of 3 Harkat-ul Mujahideen terrorists (namely) Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.
"Therein lies the necessity and relevance of an orgsation like BCAS, indispensable in today's age of modern travel. No country can afford even the smallest lapse in aviation security. The cost to pay is unaffordable. That is why BCAS was born to do everything to prevent all such incidents from recurring, to make aviation zero error,"
BCAS was set up in April 1987 and now is a 36-year-old agency. Its main responsibility is to lay down standards and measures in respect of the security of civil flights at International and domestic airports in India.
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