Indian Airlines Flight 814

Landing in Amritsar, India

At Amritsar, Captain Sharan requested refuelling for the aircraft. The aircraft stood there for more than 45 minutes but no credible efforts were made to rescue the passengers and instead confusion was spread.^[9] However, the Crisis Management Group in Delhi directed Amritsar Airport authorities to ensure that the plane was immobilised. The armed personnel of the Punjab police were already in position to try and do this. They did not receive approval from New Delhi. Eventually, a fuel tanker was dispatched and instructed to block the approach of the aircraft. As the tanker sped towards the aircraft, air traffic control radioed the pilot to slow down, and the tanker immediately came to a stop. This sudden stop aroused the hijackers' suspicion and they forced the aircraft to take off immediately, without clearance from air traffic control. The aircraft missed the tanker by only a few feet.^[10]

Later, it was revealed that there were efforts by ex-RAW chief AS Daulat and others to cover up the real motives of why the plane was not immobilised and why there were no commando-operation to neutralise the threat. The RAW officer named Shashi Bhushan Singh Tomar, husband of Sonia Tomar, was boarded on the plane, who was a brother-in-law of N K Singh, secretary to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and he ensured that the plane would be let off and no commando operation would be carried out to ensure his brother-in-law’s safety.^[11] According to RAW officer, R K Yadav, author of Mission R&AW, days before the hijacking, UV Singh, another RAW operative in Kathmandu informed Tomar that Pakistani terrorists were planning to hijack an Indian plane and he ordered Singh to check the veracity of his report where Singh vouched for its reliability but Tomar rebuked him and told him not to spread rumours. Later, Tomar was found on the same plane which was hijacked and became the cause of failure of the operation.^[12] Prime minister Vajpayee was kept in the dark until around 7:00 pm, a full hour and 40 minutes since the hijacking of IC 814 and he came to know about the hijacking only after disembarking from the aircraft in the VIP bay of Palam Technical Area.^[13]

Landing in Lahore, Pakistan

Due to extremely low fuel level, the aircraft requested an emergency landing in Lahore, Pakistan. Pakistan initially denied the request. Pakistan briefly also switched off all lights at Lahore Airport.^[14] On understanding that the only other option for the aircraft was to crash land, Lahore Airport switched on its lights and allowed the aircraft to land. India made two requests to Pakistan soon after the hijacked plane landed in Lahore; first to ensure the plane did not leave Lahore and second that Indian High Commissioner G. Parthasarathy in Islamabad be given a helicopter to reach Lahore as soon as possible, but the helicopter was provided when the hijacked airplane already left Lahore after Lahore airport officials refuelled the aircraft, got their commandos to surround the plane and allowed it to leave Lahore at 22:32 IST.^[15] The plane was there for two and half hours and Pakistani officials rejected the pilot's request to offload some women and children passengers due to tense relations with India.^[16] The senior Foreign Office officials were told by Pakistanis that there were reports from the pilot that the hijackers had killed passengers on board which were found to be false later.^[17]

Landing in Dubai, UAE

The aircraft took off for Dubai where 27 passengers aboard the flight were released.^[16] The hijackers also released a critically injured 25-year-old male hostage, Rupan Katyal, who was stabbed by the hijackers multiple times. Rupan had died before the aircraft landed in Al Minhad Air Base, in Dubai. Indian authorities wanted to carry out a commando hijack specialist operation in Dubai involving Indian military officials, which was rejected by the UAE government.

Landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan

After the aircraft landed in Kandahar, Taliban authorities offered to mediate between India and the hijackers, which India believed initially. Since India did not recognise the Taliban regime, it dispatched an official from its High Commission in Islamabad to Kandahar.^[16] India's lack of previous contact with the Taliban regime complicated the negotiating process.^[18][19]

However, the intention of the Taliban was under doubt after its armed fighters surrounded the aircraft.^[20] The Taliban maintained that the forces were deployed in an attempt to dissuade the hijackers from killing or injuring the hostages but some analysts believe it was done to prevent an Indian military operation against the hijackers.^[21][22] RAW chief Ajit Doval claimed that the hijackers were getting active ISI support in Kandahar and that the ISI had removed all the pressure the Indians were trying to put on the hijackers and even that their safe exit was guaranteed, so they had no need to negotiate an escape route. Doval also mentioned that if the hijackers were not getting active ISI support in Kandahar then India could have resolved the hijacking.^[23]

Negotiations

The Indian Government sent in a team of negotiators, headed by Vivek Katju, to discuss the demands of the hijackers, which included the release of:

• Maulana Masood Azhar – founded Jaish-e-Muhammed in 2000 which gained notoriety for its alleged role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.^[24][25]
• Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh – arrested in 2002 by Pakistani authorities for the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl.^[26][27]
• Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar – has played an active role since release in training Islamic militants in Azad Kashmir.^[28]

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who had been imprisoned in connection with the 1994 Kidnappings of Western tourists in India, went on to murder Daniel Pearl and also allegedly played a significant role in planning the September 11 attacks in the United States.^[29]

After the three militants landed in Kandahar, the hostages aboard the aircraft were freed. On 31 December 1999, the freed hostages of Indian Airlines Flight 814 were flown back through special plane.

Meanwhile, the Taliban had given the hijackers ten hours to leave Afghanistan. The five hijackers departed with a Taliban hostage to ensure their safe passage and were reported to have left Afghanistan.