The Talib Officials in front of flight IC814. Image source: Wikipedia 

thumbnail_KandaharHijacking.jpg

KandaharHijacking.jpg

-When Anil Sharma boarded the flight on 24th December 1999, he didn't expect to be stuck in the carrier for a week, held hostage by terrorists.

Indian airlines IC814 was routed from Kathmandu to New Delhi. The only issue that could persist would've been a delay in the flight due to passengers not boarding in time or some weather turbulence. But then again, nobody expected even that.

> The former cabin in charge recalls the horrific take. Sharma remembers serving tea to the pilots and coming out of the cockpit, only to find a gun pointed towards him. The man on the other side made it abundantly clear that the plane had been hijacked. Sharma revealed that he saw four other hijackers. He knew the situation was grave, and one miscalculated step could cost all passengers' lives.
> 

As per the hijackers’ instructions, the flight landed in Kandahar and remained there for a week. There was an enormous amount of tension in the plane. The terrorists instructed the cabin crew to take away the lunch, and they segregated men on one side and women and children on the other.

The hijackers were clear about not making one stop in India. Captain Devi Sharan tried to make contact with the Pakistan ATC, but it was futile. The Pakistani authorities never allowed the Indian aircraft to land in Lahore.

> Thus to no avail, Captain Devi Sharan informed the leader of the hijackers that the plane was running low on fuel and they wouldn’t be able to make the trip to Kandahar. Agitated, the leader allowed the captain to make a stop at Amritsar. They stopped to refuel in Amritsar. When the Indian authorities and other security officials became aware of the hijacking, they tried to delay the refuelling as much as possible.
> 

Captain Sharan had informed the ATC that the hijackers were armed with Kalashnikovs and grenades. He announced to the ATC that they were all going to die.

The leader of the hijackers gave instructions in pure Urdu and said that food supplies were to be used cautiously. They only had enough for 2-4 days. The Hijackers were clear. They wanted their brothers free from India. If their demands weren’t met, they were ready to kill everyone.

The plane flew to Kandahar and stopped along the way. In Lahore, the Pakistani authorities, upon India’s request surrounded the airbus to keep it from flying. They tried to negotiate the release of women and children on the plane, but the Hijackers were determined not to give in. When the aircraft landed in UAE, the hijackers released 27 passengers, out of whom one was critically injured, and one was already dead. The Indian government wanted special commandos to rescue the passengers, but the UAE government gave no permission.

It was only when the plane had landed in Kandahar that the Taliban came forward to negotiate between the Indian authorities and the hijackers.

> The negotiations did not go as planned. India did not recognize the Taliban regime, and the Taliban also did not allow India to conduct any covert operations that would’ve allowed the passengers to be rescued. The Talib soldiers surrounded the aircraft. They stated that this was done only to prevent the hijackers from killing more hostages, but the Indian authorities believed otherwise.
> 

After rigorous negotiations, 3 prisoners were released. The passengers were allowed to de-board, and the hijackers surrendered their weapons.

Were the hijackers arrested? No. Instead, along with the three released prisoners, they were driven to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border by the Taliban authorities.

The incident came to be viewed as one of the biggest failures of the BJP government, and it was implied that had robust negotiations and a swift dispersal of the news related to the hijacking had taken place, the situation wouldn’t have escalated this far. 

It is often said that memories can induce nostalgia or trauma. The hijack of flight IC814 was an unforgettably traumatic event for all those who were involved in it. Be it the passengers, the cabin crew, or the politicians and officials who tried to negotiate with the terrorists, those 8 days of inexplicable ordeal and unfathomable terror will never be forgotten.

Taking people hostage to fulfil one’s ulterior motives never makes sense. However, there are some people who are so overtaken by fanaticism that the lines between humanity and terrorism, and good and bad become blurred. 