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Indian Airlines Flight 814

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Indian Airlines Flight 814
The hijacked plane at Kandahar with Taliban men in the foreground
Hijacking
Date24 December 1999 – 31 December 1999
SummaryHijacking
SiteHijacked in Indian airspace en-route from Kathmandu to Delhi; Later landed at Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai and Kandahar
Aircraft

The aircraft involved, VT-EDW, seen a few days after the hijacking
Aircraft typeAirbus A300B2-101
OperatorIndian Airlines
IATA flight No.IC814
ICAO flight No.IAC814
Call signINDAIR 814
RegistrationVT-EDW
Flight originTribhuvan International Airport
DestinationIndira Gandhi International Airport
Occupants190
Passengers179 (including 5 hijackers)
Crew11
Fatalities1
Injuries17
Survivors189

Indian Airlines Flight 814, commonly known as IC 814 was an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 that was hijacked on 24 December 1999 by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The passenger flight which was en route from Kathmandu to Delhi, was taken over shortly after it entered the Indian airspace about at about 16:53 IST. The aircraft carried 190 occupants which included 179 passengers and 11 crew members including Captain Devi Sharan, first officer Rajinder Kumar, and flight engineer Anil Kumar Jaggia.

The aircraft flew to a series of locations Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai. While in Dubai, the hijackers released 27 passengers including a critically injured male hostage, who had been stabbed by the hijackers multiple times. Later, on 25 December, the hijackers forced the aircraft to land in Kandahar in Afghanistan. During the time, most of Afghanistan including the Kandahar airport where the hijacked plane landed, was under the control of Taliban. Taliban men had encircled the aircraft and the further presence of two officers from the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan made it difficult for any external intervention.

On December 27, after two days of internal discussion, the Indian Government sent a team of negotiators headed by Vivek Katju from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which and also included officials Ajit Doval and C.D. Sahay. The motive for the hijacking was to secure the release of various Pakistani prisoners held under terrorism charges in Indian prisons. The hijacking is seen as a part of the millennium attack plots in late 1999 and early 2000 by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists. After days of negotiations, India agreed to release three terrorists – Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar – in exchange for the hostages.

The hostage crisis ended on 31 December when the passengers and crew were released after the Indian Government handed the three terrorists over to the Taliban. The three released terrorists and the hijackers were driven to the Pakistan border by the Taliban, and they have since been suspected to be involved in other terrorism related incidents such as the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, 2002 kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, 2016 Pathankot attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack. The India Central Bureau of Investigation charged ten people in relation to case (out of whom whereabouts were unknown for seven including the five hijackers), of which only two were convicted and sent to life imprisonment.

Background

Flight IC 814 was a regular scheduled passenger flight operated by Indian Airlines between Kathmandu and New Delhi. The aircraft involved was an Airbus A300B2-101, registered as VT-EDW with serial number 036. The aircraft was handed over to Indian Airlines in November 1976 and was powered by two General Electric CF6-50C engines.[1][2] The aircraft carried 190 occupants which included 179 passengers and 11 crew members. The crew consisted of Captain Devi Sharan, first officer Rajinder Kumar, and flight engineer Anil Kumar Jaggia.[3][4] The passengers also included foreign nationals, amongst whom was Roberto Giori, the then-owner of De La Rue Giori, a company that controlled the majority of the world's currency-printing business at the time.[5][6]

Hijackers

The flight carried five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) amongst the passengers.[3][4] As per the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the five perpetrators were later identified as Pakistani nationals Ibrahim Athar (from Bahawalpur), Shahid Akhtar Sayeed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Mistry (all three from Karachi) and Shakir (from Sukkur). The hijackers used the code names Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar respectively to refer to themselves.[7][8]

HuM is an Islamist organisation based out of Pakistan, which had split from Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuI) in 1985. It re-united with HuI in 1993 to form Harkat-ul-Ansar, but after it was declared as a global terrorist organisation by the United States in 1997, it changed its name back to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.[9][a] After its leaders were arrested by Indian Armed Forces in 1993, the organisation perpetrated various attacks and kidnappings in India to secure the release of their leaders imprisoned in India. These included the killing of two Indian army personnel in 1994 and multiple incidents of kidnapping of Western tourists in 1994 and 1995.[9]

Kathmandu had been a major operational base for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and a hub for other illegal activities.[8] Based on later investigation and other statements from others arrested in connection with the incident, the incident was reportedly planned for over two months. The hijackers and their associates made several trips to Kathmandu during this period. The hijack was originally planned for 27 December 1999 but was moved forward later. The tickets for the hijackers were booked through three different tour agencies under false aliases and the booking was altered on 13 December. Access to the airport was facilitated through underworld operative Dawood Ibrahim.[7][8][10]

Hijacking

On 24 December 1999, the flight took off from Kathmandu enroute to Delhi after 16:00 hrs Indian Standard Time. It entered Indian airspace around 16:39 IST, when the passengers and crew were being served refreshments. When steward Anil Sharma entered the cockpit, a man entered along with him. He wore a mask and held a revolver and a grenade in his hands. At 16:53 IST, the pilot was told that the flight has been hijacked. The Delhi Air Traffic Control was informed of the situation at 16:56 IST.[4][5]

The hijackers instructed the captain to fly west towards the Pakistani air space.[11][12] Meanwhile, the Crisis Management Group (CMG) of the Indian Government led by Union Secretary Prabhat Kumar was not convened immediately, and the information concerning the hijacking was not communicated at that time to the Intelligence Bureau or the Research and Analysis Wing. At 17:20 IST, the Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee was briefed regarding the incident.[13] Later, the CMG met with the Prime Minister to discuss the situation.[5] Later Passenger accounts stated that the hijackers ordered the crew to take away the food that had been served, and separated the men from the women and children, blindfolding them and threatening them with explosives if they did not cooperate.[13]

Landing at Amritsar

At 18:04 IST, the Captain radioed the Indian ATC that they had only one hour of fuel left and that the Pakistani ATC had refused permission to land at Lahore. He made further calls to make the ATC, requesting them to reach out to Pakistan and obtain permission to land, as the hijackers did not want to land in India and had already threatened to execute ten hostages if their demands were not met. At 6:30 pm, the Indian High Commission in Pakistan requested permission for the plane to land there but was denied.[14] At 18:25 IST, The CMG informed the National Security Guard (NSG) to prepare for a possible rescue mission.[14]

On being told that there was insufficient fuel to go further, the hijackers allowed the Captain to land the flight at the Amritsar airport.[11][12] At 18:44 IST, the flight began its descent towards the airport in Amritsar, following a message from the Captain to the Indian ATC and the CMG was informed of the same.[14] The Indian Home Minister L. K. Advani and Director General of Police for the state of Punjab Sarabjeet Singh both later stated that they came to know of the hijacking from the television rather than being informed by the CMG.[10] As per the guidelines, Singh asked the Inspector General of Police of the area to take charge of the situation. As the officer was on leave, J.P. Birdi, who occupied the position previously, met up with the plane.[14]

On landing, the captain requested immediate refueling for the aircraft. The captain made contact with the ATC four times, informing them that the hijackers were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and had begun killing hostages, and requested them to refuel the plane as fast as possible to prevent any additional deaths. The hijackers had refused to communicate with local police officials while the plane was in Amritsar.[10][14] Later accounts indicated that the hijackers, who were upset by the delay in refueling, attacked Satnam Singh, a German citizen on board the plane, with a knife, causing him several wounds to the neck.[13] Captain Sharan later stated that he had hoped that the ordeal would end with the assistance of Indian government and that the plane would not have to take off again from Amritsar.[11][15] At 19:10 IST, the NSG was ready to take off to Lahore at the Hindon Airforce base, but had to wait as the Government negotiators did not arrive.[14]

Take-off to Lahore

Meanwhile, the CMG directed the authorities to ensure that the plane was immobilised at any cost and armed personnel of the Punjab Police were put in position to ensure the same. The aircraft engines were kept running and the plane stayed on the runway. A tanker was finally dispatched but as the aircraft moved, it was ordered to block the aircraft from taking off and it narrowly missed hitting the plane. Later, it was revealed that this approach caused the hijackers to suspect that the refueling process would prevent their departure, and they ordered Captain Sharan to take off immediately, resulting in the plane narrowly avoiding hitting the fuel tanker on the runway.[14] Later accounts revealed that five passengers had been placed in seats towards the front with their hands bound, and the hijackers threatened that these hostages would be executed if the plane did not take off immediately.[13] Despite receiving no clearance to take-off, the plane left Amritsar at 19:47 IST.[5] Captain Sharan announced the departure to the ATC stating, "We are all dying." The NSG lifted off from Hindon at around 19:55 IST and arrived at the airport after the aircraft had departed.[10][14]

On approaching Lahore, the aircraft again requested permission to land, which was denied by the Pakistani ATC. All the lights and navigational aids at the Lahore Airport was turned off to prevent a forced landing. As the plane had not been refueled in Amritsar, it was running out of fuel and Captain Sharan indicated that he would have to crash-land the aircraft. As he made the approach, the Pakistani ATC turned on the navigational aids and allowed the plane to land.[16] The plane touched down in Lahore at 20:01 IST.[5] On receiving the information that the plane had landed in Lahore, India sought a transport for the Indian High Commissioner G. Parthasarathy to travel from Islamabad to Lahore and requested Pakistani authorities to ensure that the plane did not leave Lahore. The runway lights were again turned off to prevent the aircraft from taking off and Pakistani forces surrounded the plane. While the plane was being refueled, they also attempted to negotiate with the hijackers to release women and children aboard the flight, but were denied.[16][17] Before the Indian High Commissioner could arrive at the airport, the plane had been refueled and was allowed to leave.[16] The plane took off from Lahore at around 22:32 IST.[5] The Indian officials reached out to Pakistan for confirmation of reports that that passengers on board had been killed, but did not receive a response from the Pakistani authorities regarding the same.[16]

Diversion to Dubai

Upon departure from Lahore, the crew was asked to set a course for Kabul. However, as the Kabul Airport did not having any night landing facilities that time, the hijackers opted to land at Dubai. The flight was allowed to land at Al Minhad Air Base and touched down at 1:32 IST on the next day. Following negotiations between the authorities and the hijackers, the hijackers released 27 passengers and the body of a critically injured 25-year-old male hostage, Rupin Katyal, who had been stabbed by the hijackers multiple times.[4][5][17] The released passengers including Satnam Singh, who had been attacked by the hijackers in Amritsar as well as the body of Rupin Katyal, who had been killed while the plane was in Dubai were later flown to India on a special relief plane on December 25.[13] While the plane was in Dubai, the Indian authorities wanted to attempt a rescue by Indian forces but the UAE authorities refused permission.[13][18][19] The plane later took off from Dubai at 6:20 IST in the morning.[5]

Landing in Kandahar and negotiations

The aircraft landed at Kandahar airport at 8:33 IST.[5] Kandahar was under the control of Taliban and after the aircraft landed there, the Taliban authorities offered to mediate between India and the hijackers. Since India did not officially recognise the Taliban regime, it dispatched an official from its High Commission in Islamabad to Kandahar.[17] India's lack of previous contact with the Taliban regime complicated the negotiating process.[20] Armed members of the Taliban surrounded the aircraft, which raised doubts on the intention of the Taliban.[21] The Taliban maintained that the forces were deployed in an attempt to dissuade the hijackers from killing or injuring the hostages but some analysts believe it was done to prevent an Indian military operation against the hijackers.[22][23]

On December 25 and 26, India internally discussed their approach to negotiations internally, while passengers were still on board the flight. The plane's engine was running continuously to provide lighting and heating as the temperatures dropped during the nights.[24] Passengers later stated that they received irregular meals and had limited access to drinking water and sanitation facilities, and that the hijackers utilised the public announcement system on board the plane to proselytize to the passengers.[6] Home Minister Advani opposed any release of prisoners in exchange for the hostages, as this would affect the public opinion of the government, while External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh advocated to negotiate with the Taliban. On December 27, the Indian Government sent a team of negotiators headed by Vivek Katju, Joint-Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, along with officials Ajit Doval and C.D. Sahay.[10]

The Indian officials found that the Taliban had surrounded the aircraft. The negotiations did not progress, as Taliban officials refused to allow Indian special forces to attempt a covert operation, and declined to allow their own special forces to do so as well. To prevent any military action, Taliban officials later surrounded the aircraft with tanks.[10] Ajit Doval later said that the hijackers were getting active support from the ISI in Kandahar and that the ISI had removed all the pressure the Indians were trying to put on the hijackers, meaning that their safe exit was guaranteed, and they had no need to negotiate an escape route. He also stated that if the hijackers were not getting active support from the ISI, then India could have resolved the hijacking.[25][26][27]

On December 27, a Taliban official speaking to a local newspaper stated that the hijackers should either leave Afghanistan or put down their weapons. Indian officials interpreted this statement as an understanding that Taliban officials would arrest the hijackers if they surrendered and began to negotiate with them concerning their demands.[10] The hijackers initially demanded the release of Masood Azhar, who was lodged in an Indian prison and stated that they will release ten Indians, five foreigners and some other passengers of their choice if the condition is met. India refused the offer and stated that until all the terms are laid down to completely end the hijacking, there would be no negotiations. On 27 December, the hijackers made three demands which included the release of 36 prisoners lodged in various Indian jails, the return of the body of HuM founder Sajjad Afghani and US$200 million in cash.[5][10] Sajjad Afghani was the founder of HuM, who had been arrested earlier by the Indian authorities and was killed during a jailbreak in 1999.[28]

Prisoner release and end of the hijacking

On further negotiations, the demand was ultimately reduced to the release of three prisoners - Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Zargar.[5][10] Azhar was arrested for terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir in 1994.[29] Sheikh was arrested in connection with the 1994 kidnappings of foreigners perpetrated by HuA.[30][31] Zargar, who had at least three dozen murder cases registered against him, had been arrested on 15 May 1992 and imprisoned.[21] On 30 December, RAW chief A. S. Dulat communicated with then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah to release the prisoners who were then lodged in the state prisons. Abdullah was opposed to releasing the prisoners, warning Dulat of the long-term consequences, but eventually agreed to the demands of the Indian Government. The three prisoners were released and flown to Kandahar.[10]

By the time, the hostages had been allowed to de-board the plane by the hijackers, and the hijackers had also surrendered their weapons to the Taliban. Passenger accounts indicated that the hijackers asked the passengers to show their gratitude to the Afghanistan Government, following which money was collected and handed to one of the passengers, Anuj Sharma, who was instructed to use it to commission a memento of the hijacking for a museum in Kandahar.[13] India explicitly conveyed to the Taliban that it expected the Taliban to arrest and act against the perpertrators. However, instead of arresting the hijackers and the three prisoners who had been handed over to them, the Taliban authorities gave them ten hours to leave the country and drove them to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.[5][10]

Aftermath

Indian Airlines suspended all flights to and from Kathmandu after the hijack. The airline resumed its Kathmandu services after five months on 1 June 2000, after Nepal assured India of full security at Kathmandu's airport.[32] Nepal also agreed to the installation of an additional X-ray machine and a final check of passengers by Indian security personnel at the airport.[33] In January 2000, the security of Indian Airports was handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force.[34][35] The aircraft was returned to Indian Airlines and was finally scrapped in December 2013.[2][36]

Investigation and trial

On 29 December, Indian intelligence intercepted a phone call from Pakistan to Abdul Latif in Mumbai. The phone call directed Latif to contact a news agency in London and inform that the hijackers would blow the aircraft if their demands are not met.[8] The case was investigated by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which charged ten people for the hijacking, out of which the whereabouts of seven including the five hijackers were unknown.[37][38] The hijacked aircraft became the main piece of evidence involved in the subsequent criminal investigation and subsequently a model of the plane was created for the case.[36] Along with Latif, Dilip Kumar Bhujel and a Nepalese citizen Yusuf Nepali, who helped the hijackers were convicted.[37] On 5 February 2008, a special court at Patiala sentenced all three to life imprisonment.[39] However, the CBI moved to the Punjab and Haryana High Court demanding the death penalty for Latif.[37] When the case came up for hearing in September 2012, the High Court dismissed the CBI's plea and confirmed the life imprisonment for Latif. It also acquitted the other two from conviction under the anti-hijacking law and confirmed their conviction only under the less stringent arms act.[40][41] The CBI later approached the Supreme Court of India against the decision.[40]

On 13 September 2012, the Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested Mehrajuddin Dand, who allegedly provided logistical support for the hijacking.[42] Meanwhile, Latif's application for parole was rejected in 2015.[43] On 10 July 2020, Latif along with 18 others including an employee of the passport office, was acquitted by a Sessions Court in Mumbai on charges relating to the fabrication of passports in connection with the hijacking incident.[44]

Domestic reaction

The incident was seen as a failure of then BJP-led Government under Vajpayee, with Ajit Doval later saying that India would have had a stronger negotiating hand if the aircraft had not been allowed to leave Indian territory.[45][46] Doval, who was part of the negotiating team, described the whole incident as a diplomatic failure due to the Government's inability to force the United States and the UAE to help secure a quick release of the passengers.[47] Then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh received criticism for praising the Taliban for their co-operation after the hostages had been returned.[48]

Relatives of the passengers aboard the flight also raised public protests at being denied information about the passengers' health and status, tried to enter the Government briefings and meetings by force to demand information, and held press conferences criticising the Government. A message from the Kandahar ATC was circulated to the public which stated that the plane was being regularly cleaned, and that the passengers were being provided with food, water, and entertainment. This was later contradicted by passenger accounts.[13]

As per a report in Firstpost, then RAW chief Dulat had revealed that Shashi Bhushan Singh Tomar, a RAW officer was onboard the plane during the hijacking. It was opined that a proposal to send the NSG was apparently sabotaged by then secretary to the Indian Prime Minister N K Singh, whose sister was married to Tomar.[49] It also stated that, according to former RAW officer R. K. Yadav, Tomar was alerted by a RAW operative in Kathmandu of plans by Pakistan based terrorists to hijack an Indian plane. However, Tomar rebuked him and told him not to spread rumours. It opined that somehow Tomar ended up on the same plane which was hijacked and became the cause of failure of the operation. It also criticised that then Prime Minister Vajpayee was kept in the dark for more than an hour after the hijacking.[15]

In a report to the Indian Parliament on 1 March 2000, the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh stated that the Government was not initially aware that the aircraft would land at Amritsar and there was limited information about the number of perpetrators and the nature of weapons. He further stated that the information from the flight crew indicated that attackers had already killed passengers, and any action would have contributed to undue risk. The Indian authorities made all efforts to stop the aircraft from taking off.[5]

International reaction

Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden provided organisational support for the hijacking and the incident was seen as a part of the millennium attack plots in late 1999 and early 2000 by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.[50][51][52]

India later supported the Northern Alliance and provided logistical support to Ahmad Shah Massoud against the Taliban. The leader of the Alliance visited India on multiple occasions to discuss strategies to take on the Taliban.[53] During the US invasion of Afghanistan, Indian government allowed its military facilities to be used for strikes against Afghanistan and provided intelligence information on training camps of Islamic militants in Afghanistan.[54]

Actions of released terrorists

The three released terrorists and the hijackers have since been implicated in other terrorism related incidents such as the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, 2002 kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, 2008 Mumbai attacks, 2016 Pathankot attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack.[55] Azhar later founded Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) in 2000, which gained notoriety for its alleged role in the various attacks, which led to death of hundreds of people and armed forces personnel.[56][57][58] Sheikh went on to join Azhar at JeM in 2000 after the release. He was later arrested in 2002 by Pakistani authorities for the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl.[59][60] He also played a significant role in planning the September 11 attacks in the United States.[61] Since his release, Zargar has played an active role in training Islamic militants in Pakistan administrated Jammu & Kashmir.[62]

Amjad Farooqi, who was earlier involved in the 1995 kidnapping of Western tourists in Kashmir by Al-Faran, was also involved in the hijacking under the alias "Mansur Hasnain".[63] On 1 March 2022, one of the hijackers, Zahoor Mistry, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Karachi, Pakistan. Ibrahim was held responsible for the murder of the passenger Rupin Katyal and the gunmen who killed Ibrahim were never identified.[64][65]

In 1999, Captain Sharan was awarded the 1999 Safe Skies Award.[66] The incident has been narrated in several books including books co-authored by various members of the flight crew. Captain Sharan recounted the events in a book titled Flight into Fear – A Captain's Story (2000), written in collaboration with journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury.[67] Flight engineer Jaggia wrote a book depicting the events titled IC 814 Hijacked! The Inside Story in collaboration with Saurabh Shukla.[68] The flight purser Sharma also wrote a detailed report of the hijack based on his experience in his book, IA's Terror Trail, co-authored with Doval.[69][70] Neelesh Misra's book 173 Hours in Captivity describes the incident.[71]

The 2003 Bollywood film Zameen is loosely based upon the IC 814 hijacking and also Operation Entebbe of the Israel Defense Forces in Uganda.[72] Hijack is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film by Kunal Shivdasani based on the hijacking and starred Shiney Ahuja, Esha Deol and Ishitha Chauhan in the lead roles.[73] Kandahar, a 2010 Indian Malayalam-language war film by Major Ravi is based on the hijacking.[74] Payanam (transl.Journey), a 2011 Indian action thriller film by Radha Mohan is based on a similar incident involving an Indian Airlines flight.[75] Yodha (transl. Warrior), a 2024 Indian action thriller film directed by Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha about an Indian sky marshal also references the hijack.[76] Anubhav Sinha created a TV series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack for Netflix based on the incident.[3][4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Jaish-e-Muhammad was formed as a splinter group of HuM by Masood Azhar in 2000.[9]

References

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