Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 Hijack: Was it a Pakistan’s Intelligence agency’s Plot?

 

A Brief History

 

On 24 Dec 1999, the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 was hijacked by Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist group around 1730 IST during its transit from Katmandu to Delhi. The aircraft carried 176 passengers with 15 crew members. Chief Flight Attendant Anil Sharma reported that a masked Gunman threatened Capt Devi Sharan to fly west or that he would blow the plane with a bomb. The hijackers wanted to take the aircraft to Lahore, Pakistan. However, since there was insufficient fuel Capt Sharan insisted them to land at Amritsar, India. The airport authorities at Amritsar tried to immobilize the plane by speeding a fuel tanker towards the runway. It aroused suspicion among the hijackers when Air traffic controller asked the pilot to slow down and the tanker stopped suddenly. This forced them to take off immediately (within 25 minutes of landing) and then they flew to Lahore, Pakistan.

The airport authorities at Lahore initially denied landing. In fact all lightings were turned off and a complete blackout was maintained in the Pakistani Air Space. Capt Sharan with his visual instincts tried landing on a well-lit road assuming to be runway but later aborted it. Finally Lahore airport authorities had no option but allow it to land. Also, the aircraft reportedly developed a mechanical defect and the flight engineer came out with one of the hijackers to fix the problem. Immediately after the flight was refueled, it left Lahore.

IC 814 then landed at Al Minhad military base 12 miles north-west of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates at 0135 IST after Dubai international Airport also refused it permission to land. The purported reason for landing at the air base was refueling. Also, they offered to disembark women and kids provided they fulfill the demands for food and water. Dubai was the only option left because Kabul and Kandahar had no night landing facilities and that Omani authorities refused it to land at Muscat. Indian Government wanted to conduct a Commando raid operation at Dubai but it was refused by UAE Government. 26 passengers including the young man who was stabbed by hijackers were disembarked before the flight took off to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Taliban interfered in order to gain an international recognition. It played the role of a mediator between Indian Government and the hijackers. In fact Taliban placed armed men and Anti Air rockets all around the aircraft claiming it as an attempt to dissuade the hijackers. But its intention was to prevent any Indian military operation against the hijackers. Based on the information given by passengers released at Dubai, it was found that there were five in number hijackers among whom one carried a pistol and others carried a knife. They also possessed hand grenades. They used nicknames namely Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar. Until Taliban mediated, the hijackers did not open up their demands. Though the hijackers wanted to directly negotiate with UN, it didn’t come up well. 

It was the evening of 26 December when a team of delegates from Indian Government reached Kandahar to begin talks with hijackers for the first time. The Taliban government charged $ 25,000 for permitting the Indian Airlines plane carrying negotiators and medics to land in Kandahar. It is to be noted that thirteen hours after the hijack, Osama bin Laden issued a statement ‘The United States of America, Russia and India are the greatest enemies of Islam’. Finally their demands were out. They wanted Maulana Masood Azhar (Chief of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen), body of slain terrorist Sajjad Afghani and 35 other militants to be released from prison and a sum of $200 million. After six days of negotiations, the Indian Government came to an agreement with hijackers where all the hostages were released in exchange for three militants Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Syed Sheikh. 

The released hostages alleged that the hijackers were provided more weapons at Kandahar and that they were in constant communication with someone through a wireless set who gave them instructions. Taliban regime gave 10 hours for hijackers to move out of Afghanistan who ran away with Taliban hostages for their safety. Sources reveal that they headed for Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan. It was later found that the aircraft carried RDX and so the hijackers were in a mindset to blow the plane if their demands were not met.

  

The plot

Let us see how the terrorist operation was meticulously planned. The main motive of this hijack was - freedom for Harkat-ul-Mujahideen chief Maulana Masood Azhar who was arrested in February 1994 for his terrorist activities. In July 1998, Maulana's brother-in-law Yusuf Azhar approached Abdul Latif (a Gujarat based close associate of Dawood Ibrahim) to free Masood Azhar. In June 1999, a jailbreak was attempted but failed.

In September 1999, five hijackers namely Ibrahim Athar (Chief), Sunny Ahmed Qazi (Burger), Shahid Sayeed Akhtar (Doctor), Zahoor Ibhrahim Mistri (Bhola) and Shakir (Shankar) gathered at a rented flat in Dhaka along with Abdul Latif and Abdul Rauf (younger brother of Masood Azhar). Shahid Sayeed Akhtar and Zahoor Ibhrahim Mistri were pilots trained in an Aviation academy at Melbourn. Ibrahim Athar, brother of Maulana Masood Azhar had been working on this operation in Kathmandu and found out the security lapse at Tribhuvan International Airport. Indian passengers needed only an identity card to clear the security checks. It was decided that if Indian Government denied their demands the plane would be blown off. Latif returned India to prepare the fake documents for the hijackers and also booked tickets for them. He took the principal hijacker Ibrahim Athar to Cuttack where an Al-Qaeda Indian sub-continent (AQIS) operative Mohammed Abdur Rehman (arrested on 16 December 2015) who was running a Madrassa there provided safe shelter at a secret location. With the help of Dilip Kumar Bhujel,  Shahid Sayeed Akhtar and Yusuf Nepali arranged for three grenades and three revolvers from Kalimpong. Abdul Rauf funded this plan.

On 13 December, the conspirators met at Kathmandu Zoo to confirm the sequence of plan of action. As decided, Athar entered the airport with hand grenades and pistol. As soon as he passed the security checks (helped by an ISI agent who works at Pakistan Embassy), he signaled Sunny Ahmed Qazi (Burger) and Shakir (Shankar). All three had executive class tickets. Sunny Ahmed Qazi and Shahid Sayeed Akhtar boarded the flight with business class tickets. At noon on 24 December, Latif who was in Mumbai at that time got a call from Athar that he had passed the security checks and that others were heading to airport. At 1654 IST, Varanasi Air traffic controller received a message that IC 814 has been hijacked. The hijackers had support of ISI (Inter Services Intelligence, a Pakistan based Intelligence agency) agents at various stages. They also got sophisticated weapons and communication equipments at Lahore and Kandahar airport after the plane was hijacked.

 

Indian Intelligence Failed

 

The United States' Central Intelligence Agency had more than a month ago alerted Indian authorities of plans by Islamic/Kashmiri militants to carry out some sensational action like hijacking. Likewise, the Nepalese minister of Civil Aviation had, it appears, got an inkling a month ago of a hijacking plan. Five ISI agents who were involved in this conspiracy were arrested in Mumbai. This breakthrough came when America's Central Intelligence Agency intercepted a message from the hijackers in Kandahar to one Abdul Latif in Bombay, asserting that if their demands were not met they would blow up the plane.

Apart from all these, a RAW Agent (Research and Analysis Wing, an Indian Intelligence Agency), SBS Tomar who was deployed in Nepal on a diplomatic mission was one among the hostages on the plane. Though his identity was not compromised during the hijack, he never had any intelligence regarding this.

  

The Aftermath

According to the reports of ‘Daily Times’, Abu Jandal, a former guard of Osama bin Laden, aired a one and a half hour documentary on Al-Jazeera Television in which he stated "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". 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.

Harkat-ul-Ansar is part of the pan-Islamic militant organisations that have active support from Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence and is believed to enjoy the trust of the Taliban and Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden. Kandahar was a chosen one for this very reason that Al-Qaeda’s operational base was close to it and they could get arms support.

A top-secret report prepared by the Research and Analysis Wing has indicated that people sympathetic to the hijackers' cause may get them refuge in Sudan, Nigeria or Saudi Arabia before they are provided asylum in Afghanistan or Pakistan.