The hijacking finally came to an end nearly a week later, after negotiations, the release of three terrorists, the involvement of the Taliban, and the death of one of the 179 passengers on board.
On a chilly afternoon of December 24, 1999, the fate of 176 passengers aboard Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 changed drastically when five masked men hijacked the government-owned Airbus A300. The flight, which was en route from Kathmandu to Delhi was diverted to several locations before ultimately landing in Taliban-controlled Kandahar in Afghanistan.
The hijacking finally came to an end nearly a week later, after negotiations, the release of three terrorists, the involvement of the Taliban, and the death of one of the 179 passengers on board.
The primary aim of the hijacking was to secure the release of several Islamist terrorists detained in India, including Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.
This incident also raised serious questions about the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government’s response. It is said that India’s initial response was delayed, and even the Prime Minister was briefed about the hijacking after an hour.
A Netflix series based on this real-life incident has captured significant interest, with IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack topping Google search trends.
Directed by Anubhav Sinha (known for Article 15) and starring Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, and Pankaj Kapur, the series is an adaptation of the 2000 book Flight into Fear: A Captain’s Story.
According to a statement by MEA Jaswant Singh in Parliament on March 1, 2000, Delhi’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) first received information about the hijacking at 4:56 PM. Captain Sharan discreetly sent a coded message, unnoticed by the hijackers, who demanded that the aircraft be flown to Lahore, Pakistan.
When this demand was refused, the flight touched down in Amritsar, where the hijackers demanded refueling. After about 47 minutes on the ground, the flight took off as the hijackers grew suspicious of what was unfolding.
After initially being denied permission to land in Lahore, the situation became critical as the aircraft was running out of fuel. The plane landed in Lahore at 8:01 PM. “Permission to land was given only when the pilot informed ATC Lahore that he would be forced to crash-land the aircraft as fuel had been exhausted,” stated the External Affairs Minister. The aircraft was then refuelled.
After departing from Lahore, the plane headed for Kabul, Afghanistan. However, Kabul informed the crew that there were no night landing facilities, forcing the aircraft to proceed to Dubai, where it landed at 1:32 AM on December 25. Following discussions between UAE authorities and the hijackers, 27 passengers were released.
The body of Rupin Katyal, a passenger who had been fatally stabbed by the hijackers, was also off-loaded. The released passengers were flown back to India on a special flight.
The aircraft then took off at 6:20 AM and landed at Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan at 8:33 AM, where it remained until the hijacking ended on December 31.
Despite the Indian government’s request that the hijackers and the released terrorists be treated as criminals under the law, the Taliban allowed them to leave Afghanistan after 10 hours.
The IC 814 hijacking left deep scars on India’s collective consciousness, exposing vulnerabilities in the country’s response to terrorism and highlighting the challenges of handling such crises. The incident prompted significant changes in India’s aviation security and counter-terrorism strategies.
In a statement, the Indian government remarked, “The hijacking incident has once again highlighted the complicity of Pakistan and organizations supported by it in terrorist acts against India.”
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