IC 814 - The actual story

24th Dec 1999 4 PM

Indian Airlines flight IC 814 took off from Kathmandu (Nepal) for Delhi. Aircraft carried 190 occupants which included 179 passengers and 11 crew members.

Crew consisted of :

Captain Devi Sharan

First Officer Rajinder Kumar

Flight engineer Anil Kumar Jaggia

Passengers also included foreign nationals, amongst them was Roberto Giori, the then-owner of De La Rue, a company that controlled the majority of the world's currency-printing business at the time. Flight was also carrying five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM )

HuM is a Pakistan based jihadi terrorist organization. This group was backed by Pakistan's ISI That group was part of Al Qaida South Asia. That time Taliban was extension of ISI This group was also involved in 9/11 attacks on USA. Their aim is to establish Ghazwa e Hind.

Real Name and (Code names) of Hijackers -

Ibrahim Athar (Shankar)

Shahid Akhtar Sayeed (Bhola)

Sunny Ahmed Qazi (Chief)

Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim (Burger)

Shakir (Doctor)

All five were Pakistani citizens and used their code names in entire operation.

That time Kathmandu was a major operational base for Pak’s ISI and a hub for other illegal activities. Entire operation was planned in 2 months advance.

Hijackers made several trips to Kathmandu during this period. First Hijacking was planned on 27th Dec but then they changed.

Tickets for the hijackers were booked through three different tour agencies under false aliases. Access to the airport was facilitated by Dawood Ibrahim.

A local RAW operative at Nepal UV Singh spotted their activities and informed to embassy but embassy didn't took it seriously.

4:39 PM – Plane entered in Indian Air Space

4: 53 PM – Hijackers entered in cockpit with Revolver and told Pilot that plane has been hijacked

4: 56 PM – Delhi Air Traffic Control was informed Hijackers entered in flight area with guns. They started to beat passengers

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. Hijackers asked Pilot to take flight towards Pakistan air space.

6:04 PM- Captain informed to Indian ATC that they had only one hour of fuel left. Pakistani ATC had refused permission to land at Lahore but hijackers did not want to land in India and threatened to execute ten hostages if their demands were not met.

6: 25 PM – Indian crisis management group (CMG) group led by Prabhat Kumar informed to NSG to prepare for a possible rescue mission.

7: 10 PM - On being told that there was insufficient fuel to go further, hijackers allowed Captain to land at Amritsar. Flight lands at Amritsar.

Pilot asked for refueling but some delay happened in refueling and angry hijackers stabbed a German citizen Satnam Singh.

They slitted throat of an Indian Rupin Katyal with a knife, causing several wounds. Aircraft engines were kept running and the plane stayed on the runway.

NSA sends a sniper in fuel browser. Hijackers suspect that refueling process will prevent their departure, and they order Captain Sharan to take off immediately

7:47 PM – India’s plan was to stop plane at Amritsar but Hijackers threaten to kill hostages if Pilot doesn’t fly.

To stop them from killing the passengers, Pilot took away plane from Amritsar

8:01 PM – Despite of no clearance from Pakistan, Plane lands at Lahore. earlier they switched off lights of runway but when realize Plane was landing anyhow they switched on again lights.

India request Pakistani forces to not allow Plane to fly and India sends its rescue team but Pakistan ditched India. Pakistan refuels plane and allows them to fly

10: 32 PM – Plane took off from Lahore Hijackers ask Pilot to land at Kabul Airport

Kabul airport didn’t have night landing facility so they took plane towards gulf

25thDec 1999 1:32 AM – Flight lands at Dubai airport.

Hijackers release 27 passengers in exchange for fuel Bodies of critically injured Katyal and Satnam Singh, who were stabbed are also ejected.

6:20 AM – India again try to execute rescue mission but Dubai doesn’t cooperate. Flight leaves Dubai

8: 33 AM (IST) – Flight lands at Afghanistan’s Kandahar airport which was under the control of Taliban. Armed members of the Taliban surround the aircraft to prevent an Indian military operation against the hijackers.

Plane remains at Kandahar till 31st Dec.

Plane's engine was running continuously to provide lighting and heating as the temperatures dropped during the nights Four out of Five Hijackers were very cruel but one was friendly

They didn’t give them proper meal and water and even didn’t allow them to use sanitation facilities.

They also utilized the public announcement system on board the plane to spread the message of Islamic jihad, abused Hinduism and asked passengers to convert to Islam.

Team of negotiators headed by Vivek Katju, Joint-Sec (MoHA) along with officials Ajit Doval and C.D. Sahay reach to Kandhar for negotiations.

To prevent any military action, Taliban officials later surrounded the aircraft with tanks Hijackers made three demands on 27th Dec.

- Release of 36 prisoners lodged in various Indian jails

- Return of the body of HuM founder Sajjad Afghani

- US$200 million in cash

On further negotiations, the demand was ultimately reduced to the release of three prisoners

-Masood Azhar

- Omar Sheikh

- Mushtaq Zargar

ON 30th Dec

RAW chief AS Dulat talks to Omar Abdullah and three prisoners are released and flown to Kandahar.

As hijackers receive these men, they de-board plane and surrender their weapons to Taliban Taliban, gives them 10 hours to leave the country and drive them to Pak border.

Hijackers went to Pakistan. All hostages are safely taken back to India.

The three released terrorists and the hijackers have since been implicated in other terrorism related incidents such as

2001 Indian Parliament attack

2002 Murder of Daniel Pearl

2008 Mumbai attacks

2016 Pathankot attack

2019 Pulwama attack

Masood Azhar later founded Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) in 2000

Captain Sharan was awarded the 1999 Safe Skies Award

Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden provided organizational support for hijacking

India suspended all flights to and from Kathmandu after hijack, resumed after five months.

This hijacking was a prelude to 9/11 attacks.

25 year old Rupin Katyal was returning with his wife from their honeymoon in Kathmandu, was killed in IC814 by Mistri Zahoor (Burger)

Pakistan never arrested, never took action against these five terrorists and they always lived in Pakistan.

But India took revenge of killing of Rupin Katyal in 2022 1 March 2022 Zahoor Mistry, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Karachi, Pakistan by an Unknown Man.

Ajit Doval later said that hijackers were getting active support from the ISI in Kandahar and that 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 Kandahar Hijacking was plan of Pakistan's ISI to release these three terrorist and to bleed India by Islamic Terrorism.

Source - https://thechronology.in/ic814/

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