Story behind hijacking of plane IC-814

Weekend Special

During the tenure of AB Vajpayee, an untoward incident happened in India-- all over the world had set every eyes on the incident. An Indian airlines plane,IC-814, had been hijacked. The government of India had to release 3 hardcore terrorists in lieu of freeing the passengers’ boarded on plane. The days were very hard for then Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee.

It was the winter of 24th December 1999. The flight IC-814 of Indian airlines took off from Tribhuwan International Airport Kathmandu, Nepal, to Indira Gandhi International Airport Delhi. 180 passengers including crue members were boarded on plane. The plane was airbus A300, and as the plane entered into the Indian airspace at evening around 5 o’clock, the gun toting terrorists hijacked the plane and they took the plane via Amritsar, Lahore and  Dubai to Kandhar Afganistan.

The plane before going Kandhar was landed in United Arab Emirate and 27 of 176 passengers were released by hijackers. The most of the released were women and children. A Rupen Katyal, wounded man, who had been stabbed brutally, was also released; later he died.

There was Talibani regime in Afganistan then, and India was unknown of there genere; consequently the talk between the Indian officials and hijackers was hard. Taliban had been attentive to face any attack of Indian special task force on plane. The plane was besieged to protect by the armed militants of Taliban.

India had not recognized Taliban then and now it had no existence at the world level; consequently the Talibani officials in the wake of garnering its recognition among the international community’s had nodded to help deal with the situation.

The government of India had sent an official to Kandhar from its high commission office at Islamabad.

The hijacker had the demand of 200 million American Dollors and the releasing of 35 extremists, prisoner in Indian jails. the government including PM Vajpai, Home Minister, LKAdvani, and Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh—all were considering over the terrorists demand, but they were adhere to their demands. The talks had been kept on and the days were passing.

Now the two days of plane hijack had passed; all the eyes were set on PM Vajpai. The renown Urdu journalist, Ashraf Usmani, had told a news channel that, during then, it was a big crises between the government and the terrorists of dealing with situation of mediation . PM Vajpai was informed in the mean time that Talibani obeys Mr Fazalurahman, Maulana and chairman of Zameyte Ulema-e-Pakistan, and his relation with Maulana Asad Madani was profound. Sending his messenger, PM Vajpai had requested Asad Madani to ask Fazlurahman for mediation. Maulana Asad Madni was very much humble to PM Vajpai so he accepted his proposal.

Asad Madni was the resident of Devband city in Saharanpur;consequently telephone department had connected an special phone line, which was used by Maulana Madni to talk with a Pakistani Maulana, Fazalurrahman and had requested to talk with Taliban so that the captive could be freed, but Maulana denied any talk with Taliban. PM Vajpai and Maulana Asad Madani both had failed with all the efforts.

The government officials and the hijackers were continued on talk, and now the government and the terrorists were on pressure. The government was not interested to accept any demand of terrorists, but the passengers life were on high risk. The terrorists were adamant on their demand; consequently on 31 December 1999 the talk resulted fruitful. The hijackers accepted the release of 3 prisoners and the negotiators were able to cease them upto these demands.

The foreign minister after the agreement had left for Kandhar with the 3 hardcore terrorists; he reached on Kandhar airport where Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmad Zargar and Shekh Ahmad Umar Saeed were released. The captive passengers in plane IC-814 had been released.

Maulana Masood Azhar had formed Zaish-e-mohammad terror group in year 2000, which was high lighted after the attack on Indian parliament in 2001.

Ahmad Umar Saeed Shekh had been arrested in the case of wester tourists kidnapping in 1994. The terrorist had killed deniel perl and he had played vital role of line action in America on 9/11 attacks. Later he had been arrested by Pakistani officials in the case of kidnapping and murder of Deniel Perl in 2002.

Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, after the release, was active in PoK to train the extremists. He was playing vital role in the training of anti-Indian terrorists. The hijackers of plane IC-814 had been identified. Ibrahim Athar, Bahawal, Pakistan; Shahid Akhter Saeed, Karachi, Pakistan; Sunny Ahmad Kazi, Karachi, Pakistan; Mistry Zahur Ibrahim, Karachi, Pakistan; Shakir, Sukku, Pakistan –surprisingly all were Pakistani residents.