Why were the Muslim names of the terrorists who hijackered IC-814 plane changed… Know the real story of Doval, ISI and 173 hours

New Delhi: About 25 years ago, on 24 December 1999, around 5 pm, an Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, to New Delhi took off. As soon as the plane entered the Indian border, five masked terrorists sitting inside stood up and announced that they had hijacked the plane. One of these hijackers entered the cockpit of the plane and told the pilot to immediately take the plane to Pakistan instead of Lucknow. At that time, apart from 176 passengers, there were 15 crew members including the pilot on board the plane. Who knew that this plane would remain a date in the history of India, the pain of which will keep emerging every now and then. Recently, filmmaker Anubhav Sinha’s web series IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack came, whose characters’ names are being disputed. Let us know the complete and true story with reference to some books written on this incident.

The pilot was told at gunpoint to take the plane to Pakistan

According to the famous book ‘IC 814 Hijacked: The Inside Story’ by Anil K Jagia, who was the flight engineer of IC-814, and investigative journalist Saurabh Shukla, terrorists of Pakistan’s Harkat-ul-Mujahideen asked the pilot of the plane, Captain Devi Sharan, at gunpoint to take the plane to Pakistan. Then he/she turned to Lahore instead of Lucknow, but for this, his/her plane was low on fuel. Then he/she told the hijackers of the plane that the plane was low on fuel, so the plane would have to land in Amritsar. However, on the landing of the plane, the security forces had prepared to take action against the hijackers, which the terrorists sitting inside the plane had anticipated. Because of this, they forced the pilot to fly back to Lahore without refueling. The plane did stop at Amritsar, but it did not refuel there.

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When the plane came from Amritsar to Lahore, all the lights were switched off at the airport

At 6 pm, the plane stopped for a while in Amritsar and from there it left for Lahore. When the plane reached Lahore, initially Pakistan did not allow the plane to land at Lahore airport. The lights of the airport were turned off. However, there was no other option but to land at Lahore airport for refueling. After a lot of confusion, the plane was allowed to land at Lahore airport. At that time, without the permission of the Pakistan government, this plane landed at Lahore airport at around 8 pm.

The plane reached Dubai again from Lahore, 27 passengers were released by the terrorists

After refueling, Pakistan asked the pilot of the plane to leave Lahore airport immediately. After Lahore, the plane reached Dubai airport where the hijackers allowed 27 passengers to disembark in exchange for refueling. Most of them were women and children. India had sought permission from the UAE to take action to free the plane from the hijackers at Dubai airport but it refused.

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The plane landed at Taliban-ruled Kandahar airport in the morning

This hijacked Indian Airlines plane landed at Kandahar airport in Afghanistan the next day at around 8:30 am via Lahore and Dubai. At that time Kandahar was ruled by the Taliban. The plane remained there until the hijacking incident was over, i.e. till 31 December. India had sought permission from the Taliban to take action against the terrorists here too, but they refused.

Doval had claimed that ISI was behind the hijacking

According to media reports, when the current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval reached Kandahar to negotiate with the terrorists, he/she saw that two people from the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI were present in the plane. Later, some more people from ISI reached there, among them was a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major. Doval said that if the terrorists did not have the support of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, India could have handled this crisis better. Taliban fighters had surrounded the plane from all sides to provide protection to the terrorists from any military operation by India.

The code names of the five terrorists are Chief, Burger, Doctor, Shankar and Bhola

Nilesh Mishra’s book describes the 173 hours of panic inside the plane. In the same book, it is told that the five terrorists used to call each other by code names like Chief, Burger, Doctor, Shankar and Bhola. These names have also been mentioned in this recently released web series, which is causing controversy.

The Home Ministry had told the real names of the terrorists

The Union Home Ministry had said on January 6, 2000 that the real names of the five hijackers were as follows. Ibrahim Athar of Bahawalpur, Shahid Akhtar Saeed alias Gulshan Iqbal of Karachi, Sunny Ahmed Qazi of Defence Area, Karachi, Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim of Akhtar Colony, Karachi and Shakir of Sukkur City. The Foreign Ministry release said that the hijackers had given themselves codenames like Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar in the plane. In such a situation, it would not be right to accuse the filmmakers of deliberately changing the names of Muslim terrorists.

When the newlywed bride’s husband was beheaded on a flight

The terrorists had slit the throat of a passenger Rupen Katyal to spread panic in the plane, due to which blood was spilled everywhere. They had also made Rupen’s newly wedded bride Rachna Katyal miserable. Rupen’s death due to throat slitting was slow and painful, due to which some people in the plane fainted and some vomited.

The kidnappers had demanded $200 million for the release of 36 terrorists

The hijackers had demanded a ransom of 200 million US dollars along with the release of 36 terrorists held captive in India. But when the government outright rejected their demand, they insisted on the release of three terrorists. It is said that when the plane was parked in Kandahar, the Taliban said that India had demanded commando action, but they were not allowed to do so.

Three terrorists came with Jaswant Singh

Kandahar airport remained the centre of discussion between India and Taliban officials until the hijacking crisis was over. During that time, Jaswant Singh, who was the foreign minister in the Vajpayee government, had to go to Kandahar airport twice. The first time he/she went to negotiate with the terrorists. The second time he/she brought Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh of Jaish-e-Mohammed, who were imprisoned in India, so that in exchange for them the passengers could be freed from the clutches of the terrorists.
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When Vajpayee was accused of kneeling before terrorists

The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told the nation on New Year’s Eve that his/her government had managed to reduce the hijackers’ demands to a great extent. The hostage crisis was over. The hijacking ended on December 31 when India released three terrorists in Kandahar, Afghanistan. After this hostage crisis, questions were raised on the way the government handled the crisis. It was criticized that it had bowed down to the demands of the terrorists. Although most of the passengers on the plane were Indians, citizens of America, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and Spain were also traveling in this plane.

The new webseries is based on the book written by the captain of IC-814

The new webseries is based on the book ‘Flight into Fear: The Captain’s Story’ written by journalist Srinjoy Chaudhary and IC-814’s Captain Devi Sharan. It stars Vijay Verma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Arvind Swami, Anupam Tripathi, Dia Mirza, Patralekha, Amrita Puri, Divyendu Bhattacharya, Kumud Mishra in lead roles. Although social media is divided over this webseries, it is also being praised a lot.