Exposing the Horrifying Mystery of Flight IC-814 | The Worst Plane Hijack in Indian History

This article is based on the horrifying mystery of flight IC-814, how plane hijacking has become a stigma in Indian history. In this article, you will know about the people who carried out this act and how a hijack plan kept moving from one location to another, yet the forces were unsuccessful in stopping this hijack.

This is the story of 24th December 1999 when Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was flying from Kathmandu Nepal to Delhi India and usually it takes only 2 hours to go from Kathmandu to Delhi but the passengers and crew members sitting in this flight did not know that this distance from Kathmandu to Delhi was going to be very long because this plane was hijacked by 5 people and these hijackers demanded $200 million from the Indian government to release the people and some terrorists from jail. This hijacking was the biggest and last hijacking in Indian history. Fortunately, after this, no plane has been hijacked in India.

Some time after this flight takes off from Kathmandu, food is given to the passengers and while people were eating, suddenly four masked men stand up and snatch the food from the people and start announcing that the plane has been hijacked. The hijackers enter the pilot cabin and keep the pilot Devi Sharan at gunpoint and tell him to keep flying towards the west because the hijackers wanted to take this plane to Pakistan. In this way, the plane crosses Delhi and moves towards Pakistan, specifically towards Lahore airport, but at this airport, the Pakistan Air Traffic Control strictly refuses it saying that they will not let it land.

On the other hand, the air traffic control in India gets the news of this hijacking and after about an hour, our then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee comes to know about this hijacking. After this, the Indian Air Traffic Control tries to contact this plane and the captain Devi Sharan tells that the fuel in the plane is getting low and they have been denied landing in Lahore. The captain says that the Pakistanis should be told to give us permission to land because the hijackers are getting frustrated and they are threatening that they will start killing the passengers if they are not allowed to land in Pakistan.

Source- Wikipedia

Meanwhile, Captain Devi Sharan tries to talk to the hijackers that there is very little fuel left in the plane and we can’t wait for permission here and we will have to land somewhere so that the plane can be refueled. The hijackers agree to his words and ask the Captain to land the plane in Amritsar and now the plane starts flying towards Amritsar. Now this was something that the hijackers did not want at all because they had hijacked an Indian plane and landing in India was now the upper hand with the Indian Government and the authorities. Indian forces can now easily bring the situation under control because now the plane was going to land in India.

The Indian government makes a historic blunder here or rather say many mistakes happen, finally the flight lands at Amritsar airport and immediately a request is made to refuel the plane but an amazing thing happens that Punjab’s DGP Sarabjit Singh comes to know about this hijacking only a little while before through a TV news and not through other officials, just imagine that such an important person comes to know about this hijacking through news, this was a clear communication gap, after the hijacking a crisis management group is formed whose purpose was to delay the plane as much as possible so that the commandos get time to conduct any operation.

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Due to not getting any satisfactory answer and delay in fuel, the hijackers start threatening the passengers and even injure a passenger named Satnam Singh with a knife. Meanwhile, Captain Devi Sharan again requests that the plane be refueled as soon as possible. On the other hand, the Crisis Management Group along with the local police make a plan to put some of their local officers in the fuel tanker so that they can secretly puncture the plane’s wheels, so that the plane cannot fly again. Now a fuel tanker starts moving towards the plane, but due to miscommunication between the tanker driver and the officers, the captain and the hijackers sitting in the plane find something strange, due to which the hijackers get frustrated and ask to fly the plane without refueling.

An important thing here is that the plane has not yet been filled with fuel. During take-off, Captain Sharan sends a message to ATC that ‘we are all dying’. Now again this plane turns towards Pakistan but Pakistan’s ATC again refuses to give permission. But on Captain Sharan’s request again, Pakistan’s ATC gives them permission to land and now the plane lands in Lahore. India tells Pakistan’s airport officials not to let this plane take off again because India wanted to send the Indian Embassy sitting in Islamabad to negotiate with the hijackers and in the meantime, fuel is also filled in the plane here. Now the hijackers started feeling that their demands are not being met, so they attacked another passenger whose name was Rupin Katiyal, due to which he died later.

By the time the Indian officials reach there, the plane takes off again. This time it heads towards Oman, but due to not getting permission from there, the next landing of the flight is at Dubai airport. Here, after a tough negotiation, the hijackers release around 26 passengers. Here, a special aircraft of Indian Airlines brings these passengers back to India.

Now, after a day, the plane takes off again and now it heads towards Afghanistan. On December 26, at around 8 am, the plane lands at Kandahar International Airport. India sends an official of its High Commission in Islamabad to Kandahar to negotiate with the hijackers.

Ajit Doval, who was then a part of a special team sent to Kandahar for negotiations with the hijackers, told that these hijackers were getting ISI support, otherwise India would have been able to resolve this hijacking. The Kargil war was also fought in 1999. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had appealed to maintain peace but he failed. Now in Kandahar, the hijackers tell their demand that they should be given $200 million and demand the release of 36 prisoners. Apart from this, they also demand the dead body of Sajjad Afghani, the founder of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. This was a very absurd demand that so much money and the release of prisoners was being demanded.

Indian officials reach Kandahar on 27 December. This team of negotiators was led by Vivek Katju, who was the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, and Home Ministry official Ajit Doval. On the other hand, Taliban refuses to allow Indian forces to carry out any rescue operation, but they definitely say that they will negotiate on your behalf. In this way, the negotiations proceed further, there is tough negotiation, on one side there are Indian officials, on the other side Taliban and then the hijackers. Ultimately, the demands of the hijackers are narrowed down to a great extent. Instead of 36, only 3 prisoners will be released. The credit for reducing the demands of the hijackers is given to both Indian negotiators and Taliban.

By the fifth day of the hijacking, the toilets of the plane had started overflowing. People were losing hope. The then RAW chief A.S Dulat reached Jammu on 30th December and tried to convince the chief minister Farooq Abdullah to release the two prisoners who were there. Farooq Abdullah got into deep thought and argued that this could have very bad ramifications in the future, which we saw is happening today too, but at that time the pressure was so much that they had to listen to this. These prisoners were taken to Delhi, from where they were taken to Kandahar by boarding a flight with minister Jaswant Singh. The hijackers’ demands were heard and they also started releasing the passengers.

Now Indian officials thought that the hijackers would be arrested by Taliban but this did not happen. Instead, the hijackers and the released prisoners were put in a vehicle and made to cross the border which was headed towards Pakistan. By this time it was clear that Pakistan was also a part of this hijacking. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based militant group, was active in Pok. 33 out of 36 prisoners were also Pakistanis whose release was demanded.