Amritsar Hijacking Story: How NSG commandos rescued IC 427 plane from terrorists in 5 minutes, read the full story of Amritsar plane hijacking

New Delhi: On April 24, 1993, a strange incident took place in the waiting room of Delhi airport. Dr. Asif Khande of Srinagar and the person sitting next to him/her, HM Rizvi, were waiting for Indian Airlines Flight 427 from Delhi to Srinagar. However, when both of them boarded the flight, this journey of a few hours turned into a horrific journey. In fact, the person sitting next to Dr. Khande was actually a dreaded terrorist who was going to hijack the flight. This person who boarded the flight in the guise of Rizvi was none other than Mohammad Yusuf, a dreaded terrorist of the terrorist organization Hizbul Mujahideen.

NSG rescued the plane in five minutes

Shortly after the flight took off, Yusuf hijacked flight IC 427 and forced it to go to Amritsar instead of Delhi. However, the nefarious intentions of terrorist Yusuf were thwarted by the NSG anti-hijacking squad in just five minutes. Today we are going to tell you about that operation of those brave NSG commandos. In which they freed the flight from the hijacker in just five minutes. The hijacking of Amritsar flight IC 427 is also being discussed these days because the recently streamed Netflix series – IC 814: The Kandahar Hijacking has once again brought the IC 814 hijacking into the headlines. The webseries showed that the terrorists had taken the flight to Amritsar. In such a situation, the question arises that when the NSG commandos had ended the Amritsar hijack in five minutes, then why did the NSG not do so when the flight reached Amritsar during the Kandahar hijacking? Experts say that if action had been taken in time, the hijacking incident could have been prevented.

After a similar incident was carried out in Amritsar in 1993 with the help of NSG commandos, many people were surprised why this was not done in the case of the Kandahar hijacking that lasted seven days. A.S. Dulat, who was the head of RAW at that time, called the failure to prevent IC 814 from leaving Amritsar a major lapse. At that time, the Punjab Police had reportedly sought permission from the Center to deploy its counter-terror commandos to deal with the IC 814 hijacking. But, the central government thought it better to send NSG commandos to Amritsar. There was a standoff in Amritsar for 45 minutes and a big opportunity was lost and the hijacked flight was taken out of Amritsar.

What happened on the flight that day?

IC 427 was hijacked by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorist Mohammed Yusuf Shah. The flight took off from Delhi to Srinagar at 1:57 pm. As soon as the flight took off, chaos started in the flight. Mohammed Yusuf, who had passed the security check with the help of crutches, stopped limping as soon as he/she sat on his/her seat in the plane. Half an hour later, he/she took out two loaded 9 mm pistols hidden inside the plaster on his/her leg and took over the plane. Even after landing in Amritsar, he/she remained adamant on his/her demand and insisted on taking the plane to Kabul. Negotiations continued for a few hours but Yusuf remained adamant. Meanwhile, the CMG sent the anti-hijacking commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) to Amritsar for their first mission. In 1993, the CMG acted swiftly and allowed the NSG commandos and the negotiating team present in Amritsar to board the aircraft. They were also given the authority to decide the timing of the operation themselves after assessing the ground situation.

NSG attacked from the back door

They managed to sneak under the plane from the rear, where it was dark. Their task became even easier because the air hostess had opened the wheel locks of all the six doors. At 1:05 am, the NSG commandos stormed the plane through all the six doors and cornered the hijacker in the cockpit. he/she was talking on the radio phone with Punjab Police chief KPS Gill when the commandos attacked him/her from behind. The sudden entry of the commandos into the plane took Mohammad Yusuf completely by surprise. Though late, he/she tried to fire, but before he/she could do anything, an NSG commando shot him/her with a silencer pistol.