Those secrets of IC-814 hijacking, will Narendra Modi government make the records of this incident public?

New Delhi: IC-814 The Kandahar Hijack, which was recently released on Netflix, is in a lot of controversy. This web series is based on the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Nepal to Kandahar on 24 December 1999. In 1999, the government released three terrorists in exchange for the hostages. The incident of releasing the terrorists is surrounded by mystery and conspiracies till date. This incident created an image of the Indian government bowing down to terrorism and raised questions on the security of the country. The hijacking incident of 1999 has come into discussion again after the series on Netflix. After which the then RAW chief Amarjit Singh Dulat and his/her colleague Anand Arni put their point in the media. Arni was part of the team that negotiated with the hijackers.

The hijackers demanded the release of 105 terrorists

An HT report quoted Dulat as claiming that Ajit Doval, the chief negotiator at the time and current National Security Advisor, was constantly sending messages from Kandahar to resolve the matter as soon as possible and accept the demands of the hijackers. Arni revealed that the hijack was planned by Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar Alvi’s elder brother Athar Ibrahim Alvi and his/her younger brother Rauf Asghar Alvi. The hijackers had initially demanded the release of 105 terrorists.

Talks made on releasing three terrorists

The Indian negotiating team reduced this demand to the release of Masood Azhar on 29 December, but again agreed to the release of three terrorists – Masood Azhar, Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar – on 30 December. Arni also said that the negotiating team had spoken to him/her before taking away the released terrorists and hijackers.

Which officers took charge

It is worth noting that the IC-814 hijacking case was handled by the then NSA Brajesh Mishra. he/she was getting intelligence from RAW chief Dulat and IB chief Shyamal Dutta. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister LK Advani were monitoring the entire process. The Cabinet Secretary at that time was Prabhat Kumar and the CEO of Indian Airlines was Anil Baijal. The negotiation team sent to Kandahar was led by IB Additional Director Ajit Doval. Doval was accompanied by Joint Secretary (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran) Vivek Katju, Joint Director (Operations) Nehchal Sandhu. RAW was represented by CD Sahay and Anand Arni.

The government should consider making the records public

It is important to note that Doval is now the NSA and Sandhu does not speak to the media. In such a situation, the Modi government should consider making the records of the IC-814 hijack case public, especially after Dulat and Arni have spoken out.

Important facts related to IC-814 hijack

• The negotiating team led by Ajit Doval was never in direct contact with the IC-814 hijackers or the released terrorists. Doval’s team was negotiating with the then Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil and Civil Aviation Minister Akhtar Muhammad Usmani.
• These two Taliban leaders were taking direct instructions from Taliban supremo Mullah Omar, who was stationed 25 km away from Kandahar airport. It is not difficult to guess who Mullah Omar was talking to, as the man behind the hijack was ISI chief Lt Gen Mahmood Ahmed. Ahmed was very close to Mullah Omar and was expelled from the ISI for his/her role in the 9/11 terror attacks and funding the Hamburg cell led by al-Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Atta.
• The hijackers’ initial demand was the shroud of slain Harkat-ul-Ansar terrorist Sajjad Afghani and the release of 36 terrorists lodged in Indian jails. Afghani was arrested along with Masood Azhar by the IB in 1994 from the outskirts of Srinagar.
• Later the negotiating team reduced this demand to three terrorists – Masood Azhar, Omar Saeed Sheikh and a small-time Kashmiri terrorist Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and at no stage the demand was reduced to just one terrorist.
• Given his/her experience of dealing with Pakistani terrorists while serving as additional director of Kashmir, Ajit Doval wanted more time for talks with the Taliban. he/she conveyed this to the then NSA Brajesh Mishra.
• However, under pressure from the families of the hostages, the Congress and the National Conference leaders, the Vajpayee government made it clear to Doval that it wanted the hostages back before the turn of the new century. The media was also constantly putting pressure on the government. The plane that brought back the hostages was a Boeing 737, which had entered Afghanistan after getting clearance from Zhob Air Traffic Control in Pakistan.
• This same plane, with the hostages seated and some negotiators standing in the cockpit, took off from Kandahar before the last sunset of the 20th century.
• Given the Taliban regime and Mullah Omar’s control over Kandahar airport, the released terrorists were driven to the IC-814 aircraft in a Toyota Land Cruiser so that the hijackers could confirm that Azhar, Sheikh, and Zargar had been released.
• The hostages and the negotiating team were then brought back to India before midnight on December 31, 1999. No one knew where the released terrorists or the hijackers were taken. There is speculation that Masood Azhar went to meet Mullah Omar and the hijackers fled to Pakistan via the Zhob ATC crossing in Balochistan.
• India suffered humiliation after the IC-814 hijack. Doval suggested that the remaining 33 terrorists, whose release was sought by the hijackers, should be kept in separate jails and dealt with as soon as possible as such hijacks could happen again.
• This proposal had the support of Home Minister LK Advani and the then IB Director Shyamal Dutta. However, Brajesh Mishra rejected this proposal. It is not difficult to guess on whose advice he/she might have done so.