 A Flight 814 The Chronology of Events |
 Al Qaeda hijacked IC-814 to Kandahar, says Osama's former guard Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda hijacked Indian Airlines jetliner IC-814 to Kandahar, Afghanistan, on the Christmas eve of 1999 to secure the release of Pakistani militant Maulana Masood Azhar. Abu Jandal, a former guard of Osama bin Laden said this in a one and a half hour documentary aired on Al-Jazeera Television, reports the Daily Times. According to the guard, bin Laden welcomed Maulana Masood Azhar after his release following negotiations between the Indian government and the hijackers, and threw a lavish party in his honour. "After two or three days, bin Laden invited Azhar to a lavish party, thrown in his honour, where I was introduced to him. I was astonished to discover that Azhar and Bin Laden already knew each other," Jandal said. He further said that on the day the Indian Airlines jet was hijacked and force-landed at Kandahar, he was asked to keep the heat-seeking Stinger missiles ready. "Emergency was declared at the Kandahar Airport in 30 minutes. I was told that other planes will also follow this one and there is a chance that the situation could deteriorate," he said
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 Devi Sharan with his daughters, Aashna, 7, and Deeksha, 10. The hijackers, jumpy and brusque, shoved the nose of the gun to the pilot's head. Take off in 30 seconds or die, they told him. Then they began a panicky countdown: "30, 29, 28, 27 . . ." When they reached 2, Capt. Devi Sharan opened up the power on Indian Airlines flight 814 and took off. As the Airbus lifted into the sky at 7:49 p.m. on Christmas Eve, any possibility that a crack Indian commando team could storm the plane and try to rescue the 184 passengers and crew members ended. The jet was leaving Amritsar, in India, and heading across the border into what many Indians consider enemy territory: Pakistan. |
 Indian Airlines Flight 814 (abbreviated IA-814) was a flight that flew from Kathmandu, Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport to Delhi, India's Indira Gandhi International Airport. It was hijacked on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24, 1999, shortly after the aircraft entered Indian airspace at about 5:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time by five Pakistani nationals. The hijackers stabbed to death 25-year-old Rupin Katyal. Ultimately, the plane landed in Afghanistan, where the hijackers agreed to release their hostages in exchange for the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.  The Indian Airlines (now renamed as 'Indian') flight 814 (VT-EDW) was hijacked on the eve of Christmas on Friday, December 24, 1999, shortly after the aircraft entered Indian airspace at about 5:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time. The identities of the hijackers were 1. Ibrahim Athar from Bahawalpur, Pakistan 2. Shahid Akhtar Sayed from Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi, Pakistan 3. Sunny Ahmed Qazi from Defence Area, Karachi, Pakistan 4. Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim from Akhtar Colony, Karachi, Pakistan 5. Shakir from Sukkur City  Anil Sharma, senior flight steward on IC-814, later recalled that a masked, bespectacled threatened to blow up the plane with a bomb and ordered Captain Devi Sharan to "fly West". The hijackers wanted Captain Sharan to divert the aircraft over Lucknow and head towards Lahore, but Pakistani authorities quickly refused permission as they were wary of being linked with the terrorists. Also, the fuel was not sufficient. Captain Sharan told the hijackers that they have to land in Amritsar, India After landing at Amritsar, the flight crew were hoping that they will get some assistance and the hijacking will end. They asked for a sniper or a sharpshooter to go along with the browser and shoot at the tyres to disable the aircraft. But, for unknown reasons that could't happen. The local forces at Amritsar were told to wait for the National Security Guard. The hijackers asked for the plane to be refueled, the Indian Government agreed as it would have given it some time to formulate some strategy. But as the refueling was deliberately delayed by the Indian Government, after waiting for over 25 minutes, the hijackers became suspicious and ordered the captain to fly the plane to Pakistan. When the captain didn't comply, they threatened to kill all the passengers. They stabbed 25-year Mr. Rupin Katyal in chest a number of times. Rupin Katyal was returning from his honeymoon with his wife Rachna Katyal. At this stage, a helpless Captain Sharan realized that there was no action from ATC, the Indian Government or the security forces; "the browser was not coming in front of the aeroplane and nothing was happening". He decided to fly to Lahore without refuelling. As the plane was running very low of fuel, on Indian government's request, Pakistan allowed the plane to be landed and refueled. Three hours after landing, the plane took off towards Afghanistan but as none of the airports were equipped for night landings, it was diverted to the military base Al Minhat in the United Arab Emirates. During this flight, Mr. Rupin Katyal passed away. After landing, the hijackers were asked to release women and children in exchange for some more fuel, food and water. Some 25 passengers were released along with the body of Mr. Rupin Katyal.  In the early hours of Christmas morning, the battered and hijacked plane flew again with a tired crew to Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Taliban authorities did not cooperate with the Indian authorities to secure a release of the hostages by disallowing Indian commandos to storm the plane. They refused the request to let Afghan commandos storm the plane, as well. The Taliban encircled the plane with tanks and heavily armed militia. Negotiations opened up between the Indian government and the hijackers. The government accepted to release the following terrorists in exchange for the release of the passengers and crew of the flight IC 814. · Maulana Masood Azhar (Pakistani) · Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar (Indian) · Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (British national of Pakistani origin) The erstwhile Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh had personally gone to Kandahar to take charge of the situation there. After negotiations between the India government, and the hijackers, the remaining hostages were freed. On December 31, 1999, the freed hostages of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 were flown back to India on a special plane. The hijackers disappeared into Pakistan in their vehicle before releasing a Taliban official they had taken hostage Initial demand by the hijackers India released 3 terrorists for the exchange of the Indian Airlines passengers. Summary of External Affairs Minister's comments at a press briefing - December 27, 1999. The Government of India continues to monitor the situation. The Government has shared with the leaders of political parties in India information on developments in respect of the hijacking of flight IA-814. The leaders of political parties said that since developments were taking place at a fast pace, it was for the Government to decide on shapes should be taken. An airplane with essential materials, doctors, relief crew and a negotiating team is in the process of leaving for Kandhar. It was our expectation that the aircraft will leave for Kandhar within the next 2-3 hours. In the course of the last two days EAM had contacted his counterparts in several countries including Australia, Russia, Canada, Great Britain, USA,  In response to questions, EAM said the following: The Government was aware of reports of the deadline apparently set by the hijackers. Our direct contacts with them will enable us to know the exact nature of their demands. The relief aircraft would have gone yesterday but for procedural difficulties not on account of the Government of India. The cooperation we are receiving from the US administration is totally satisfactory. EAM has been in touch with his counterpart in Pakistan. The Pakistani reaction was that whatever they do will be within the four corners of the law and transparent. |
 Rupin Katyal, who was killed by the hijackers, and his wife Rachna at their marriage reception 
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Friday, November 28, 2008
IC-814: at Kandahar, a shame story
IC-814 Hijacking [24 December 1999]
President of India's Message (Indian Airlines Flight IC-814)
25th December 1999
The heinous terrorist action of hijacking an Indian Airlines flight causing death, injury and grievous trauma to innocent passengers needs to be condemned in the strongest terms. This incident once again highlights the need for concerted international action to prevent terrorists from holding the world to ransom in the name of whatever causes they may claim to espouse.
I would like to express India's appreciation to all countries that extended cooperation in dealing with this serious incident. I join the nation in mourning the loss of life and in extending sympathetic support to the passengers and their near and dear ones who are undergoing prolonged anxiety and agony as a result of this dastardly act.
Prime Minister's Statement on Hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814
New Delhi, 25th December 1999
My first concern is the safety of the passengers and the crew on board the aircraft. We are doing everything possible to ensure that they return home unharmed.
These last 20 hours have been extremely stressful for the families of the passengers and the crew. I understand and fully share their anxiety.
I also share the anger and grief in the country, particularly over the killing of Rupin Katyal.
I and my colleagues have been constantly monitoring the situation. We are in touch with various countries, as well as the United Nations.
By Vir Sanghvi
Few Indian politicians can match Pervez Musharraf’s verbal dexterity. For all of last week, as the General has toured the United States, I have watched his progress with astonished fascination. As much as we in India may like to pretend otherwise, there is no doubt that the General has invented a fairly convincing persona for himself.
According to this image, he is a bluff, military man with a pragmatic and completely secular outlook who risks his life each day, fighting, along with the forces of civilisation (i.e. George W. Bush and Colin Powell), against the evil-doers (i.e. Muslim fundamentalists) who threaten the very foundations of the Western way of life (i.e. the security of the United States).
The General plays this role so well that listening to him, it is easy to forget that there are more holes in this re-invention of his persona than in a pair of fishnet stockings. You forget, for instance, that far from fighting the forces of terror (i.e. the Taliban), the General and his beloved Pakistan army actually created the Taliban state and ran it by remote control. Even as American planes were bombing Afghanistan and while the General was singing The Star Spangled Banner, hundreds of Pakistani army regulars were fighting alongside the Taliban. Eventually, they had to be evacuated by the Pakistani Air Force.
You forget also that, according to the General, any Islamic fundamentalist who threatens his position is a dangerous terrorist who must be handed over to Colin Powell. But any Islamic fundamentalist who murders Indians is a brave freedom fighter who must be allowed to remain in Pakistan and must, under no circumstances, be sent back to face trial in India.
I don’t know how much longer Musharraf can prevent the gaping holes in his cover story from being apparent to the American people whom he is now so assiduously wooing. But when his legend begins to unravel, it will be something like the Daniel Pearl kidnapping that will do it.
We now know that Omar Sheikh, who kidnapped Pearl, was actually arrested before Musharraf reached Washington. We know also that he said that Pearl was dead. But Musharraf was so desperate for his visit to the US to succeed that this news was suppressed. Instead, the General blamed the kidnapping on India.
In his eagerness to blame India, he made what could prove to be a potentially fatal error. He raised the subject of Omar Sheikh and Masood Azhar, both terrorists freed by India in return for the passengers on IC-814. The hijacking connection will, eventually, come back to haunt him.
The IC-814 hijacking is perhaps the biggest defeat ever suffered by India in our war against terrorism. We have always believed that the hijacking was organised by Pakistan. We think that the hijackers came to Kathmandu from Karachi and boarded the plane to Delhi within hours of their arrival.
We believe that the hijackers had always intended to take the plane to Afghanistan so that they could have the protection of Pakistan’s Taliban allies while Islamabad could handle the operation at arm’s length.
All this is, naturally enough, denied by Pakistan.
But there are some things that Islamabad cannot deny. Ultimately, the hijackers set the passengers free after securing the release of three terrorists: Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar alias Latram. All three were released on the tarmac at Kandahar and then melted away. Where did they escape to? We think they went to Pakistan.
The same is true of the hijackers. At least one of them we now know was Masood Azhar’s brother. We suspect that the hijack was planned by Azhar’s family to get him out of jail. Where did all these people go after the hijack?
Similarly, international law tells us that in no circumstances is hijacking ever justified. Any hijacker, no matter how noble you regard his motives as being, is a terrorist and must be treated as such.
If Islamabad is going to stick to its position that it had nothing to do with the hijacking and that it was the work of disgruntled Kashmiris, then it has to prove that it did not offer refuge to the men who planned and carried out the hijacking. And that it did not immediately welcome the terrorists whose release was secured by the hijackers.
It is now becoming clear that Musharraf has been lying — on both counts.
Take Masood Azhar, whom he now calls an Indian agent and a kidnapper. Until two months ago, Pakistan denied that Azhar was anything other than a Maulana. Even when he founded the Jaish-e-Mohammed and encouraged Pakistanis to join the jehad in Kashmir, Musharraf refused to take any action against him.
But now, we have proof that this man found refuge in Pakistan and that he is a terrorist —and we have Musharraf’s word for it.
But the plot gets murkier. After the General had failed to blame the kidnapping on India, the Pakistani police announced that Pearl had actually been kidnapped by Omar Sheikh.
And who was Omar Sheikh? He was yet another of the terrorists freed in return for the passengers on IC-814. He too, it seems, had found his way to Pakistan from Kandahar. And, according to the Pakistanis themselves, he went back to his old trade — kidnapping and terrorism
.Till now, Pakistan had claimed that it had no idea where Sheikh was. Then suddenly, the police went so far as to get Azhar to phone Sheikh from his jail cell to ask him to release Pearl.
Not only had they known that Sheikh was in Pakistan all along, but the cops even had a phone number for him!
But wait, it gets even richer.
On Friday, Sheikh admitted that he had kidnapped Pearl, but said he had done all this at the urging of Mansur Hasnain, in whose custody he had left Pearl. And why had he done all this for Hasnain? Well, because according to the Pakistani police, Hasnain was the mastermind behind the IC-814 hijacking. So Omar owed him one.
So much for the claims that the hijacking was the work of disgruntled Kashmiris; that no Pakistani was involved; that Islamabad had no idea where the three released terrorists went.
Now the Pakistani police themselves are claiming that it was masterminded by a Pakistani.
The whereabouts of the hijackers themselves are a little more mysterious but even there, the information we now possess makes a mockery of Islamabad's claim that it had nothing to do with them. When US forces moved into Kabul after the defeat of the Taliban, they found the house in which the hijackers had stayed. According to the Americans, they also found passports and other documents that suggested a strong Pakistani connection.
General Musharraf keeps telling Washington that he is fully involved in the fight against terror. I think that it is now time to call his bluff.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the Kashmir militancy, nobody who claims to fight terror can support hijackers, kidnappers or terrorists released as a consequence of a hijacking. Morally — and legally — such people are much worse than the Taliban soldiers currently incarcerated by the US at Camp X-Ray.
Musharraf does not want to hand anybody over to India. Fair enough; that is his prerogative. But my suggestion is this: if he is serious about fighting terror, he should round up the hijackers of IC-814, those who helped them, and those who were exchanged for the passengers. By any definition, these people are terrorists. Once he’s rounded them up, let him ship them to Camp X-Ray and let the Americans look them up along with the Talibs.
If he does that, we’ll know that his participation in the war against terror is genuine.
And if he doesn’t, we’ll have proof of what we’ve always suspected: the old humbug changes his story to suit the listener.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
History Of Terrorism In India
April 1, 1993: Top JKLF Leader Assassinated
Unidentified assailants kidnapped and killed one of India's top heart surgeons who was subsequently revealed to be a leading member of the militant Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Kashmiri militants alleged Indian security forces carried out the assassination, a charge Indian authorities denied.
March 12, 1993: Bomb Attack in Bombay
A series of bomb attacks in Bombay left over 250 people dead.
May 21, 1991: Rajiv Gandi Assassinated
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during a campaign rally in Tamil Nadu State
January 3, 1989: Kashmiri Separatist Campaign
Moslem Kashmiri militants began their campaign for independence from India.
July 6, 1987: Sikhs Attack Hindu Bus Riders
Seventy-two Hindus were killed in an attack by Sikh militants on a bus in the Punjab.
April 29, 1986: Militants Seize Golden Temple
Sikh militants seized the Golden Temple of Amritsar in Punjab and declared the independent state of Khalistan. Expelled by government of India forces the next day.
October 31, 1984: Assassination of Indira Gandhi
Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sick bodyguards. Anti-Sikh rioting following the assassination resulted in thousands of Sikh deaths throughout India.
August 9, 1984: Head of Indian Security Killed
The head of the Indian security forces that stormed the Sikh Golden Temple of Amritsar was assassinated by Sikh terrorists.
February 11, 1984: Execution of Maqbul Butt
Maqbul Butt, founder of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, was hanged in a New Delhi jail for the 1965 murder of an Indian intelligence agent in Kashmir. Militant Moslems have marked the anniversary of his death with sometimes violent demonstrations in Jammu and Kashmir.
February 1, 1984: Kashmiri Separatist Executed
Maqbul Butt, a Kashmiri separatist leader, was executed in India.
January 30, 1948: Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated
No information provided.
July 13, (year unknown): Martyr's Day In Kashmir
Commemorates the deaths of Kashmiri nationalists during the British raj.
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