The webseries IC-814 on Netflix is in the news. This series is based on the Kandahar plane hijacking incident. Pakistani terrorists hijacked this Indian Airlines plane on 24 December 1999 when it was coming from Kathmandu to Delhi. There were 191 passengers including crew members on board the plane. After 7 days, the conditions of release were agreed upon and the passengers were released on 31 December 1999. One of the demands that the terrorists had placed before the government was that the body of terrorist Sajjad Afghani, who was buried six months ago, should also be handed over to them. However, the government flatly refused to fulfill this demand. Sajjad Afghani was killed in Jammu in June 1999. Later, the hijackers agreed on the condition of releasing three terrorists including Masood Azhar. Know who was terrorist Sajjad Afghani?
Actually, Indian Airlines flight IC-814 reached Kandahar in Afghanistan after being hijacked. The passengers were kept hostage there. On December 27, a delegation of the Indian government also reached Kandahar for talks. During the talks, the hijackers sent their demands to the Indian envoys. It was written on the piece of paper thrown from the plane, give us a direct answer. Keep your sentences short. The terrorists said that they would release the passengers only when their demands were met. These demands were – 36 terrorists should be released, 200 million dollars (860 crores rupees) should be given and Sajjad Afghani’s coffin should be handed over.
Naseeruddin Shah, Vijay Verma and Pankaj Kapoor are in the lead roles in the web series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ directed by Anubhav Sinha on Netflix. This series is based on the content of Captain Devi Sharan’s book ‘Flight Into Fear’ published in the year 2000. The hijackers talked to the representatives of the Indian government through the walkie-talkie provided by the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) in Kandahar. The terrorists used the VHS set of the plane.
When the Taliban intervened in the talks
The demand for the coffin had exposed the cunning tactics of the Taliban extremists. However, the Indian government pressurised the kidnappers to withdraw their demands. The Taliban’s Supreme Council Shura intervened and held a meeting. In the end, it was concluded that the kidnappers’ demand for money was un-Islamic and this demand should not be raised. There came a time when there seemed to be no agreement between the two sides. In the end, the Taliban leaders said that if an agreement is not reached, the kidnappers will be asked to leave Kandahar.
After that, the terrorists softened their stand and withdrew most of their initial demands and India finally handed over the three terrorists in exchange for all the passengers of IC-814. All this was possible after long negotiations at Kandahar airport. In the year 1999, Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban like today.
The hijackers’ mission could not be accomplished!
Anil K. Jagia and Saurabh Shukla have told in their book ‘IC 814 Hijacked: The Inside Story’ that Taliban chief Mullah Omar had asked his foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil to take the talks forward. He talked to the hijacker ‘Chief’ for 30 minutes. The plane hijackers got three terrorists, but their mission to get Sajjad Afghani’s coffin could not be completed.
Who was the terrorist whose coffin the hijackers were demanding?
It was 1991. Sajjad Afghani became the commander-in-chief of the terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Ansar in Srinagar. In June 1994, the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) arrested him along with Masood Azhar, the then general secretary of the terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Ansar. The then Brigadier General Staff (BGS) Lieutenant General Arjun Ray described the arrest of Sajjad Afghani as the biggest achievement. Afghani looked weak, but was a dangerous person. He had also fought the Russians.
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen joined forces with another terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) to form Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA) in 1993. This was Pakistan’s nefarious plan to create more unrest and bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir. Indian security forces foiled that plan by arresting three leaders.
First, former Harkat-ul-Mujahideen chief Nasrullah Mansoor Langriyal was arrested in November 1993. In March 1994, Harkat-ul-Ansar’s Masood Azhar and Jammu and Kashmir unit chief Sajjad Afghani were arrested in Srinagar.
Sajjad was locked up in Kot Bhalwal
Sajjad Afghani was the chief commander of Harkat-ul-Ansar and was kept in the high-security Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu. Sajjad Afghani was killed while trying to escape from the jail on 15 July 1999. He was shot dead.
Sajjad Afghani dug a 23 feet long tunnel in his prison cell
Sajjad Afghani had dug a 23 feet long tunnel in the jail. If he had dug a little more, he and other terrorists might have been able to escape, but the security personnel caught them and 11 prisoners including Afghani were killed. This incident happened in July 1999. Five months later, in December 1999, five terrorists hijacked IC-814. This plane had taken off from Kathmandu to Delhi.
The hijackers of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen asked the pilot to divert the plane to Kandahar in Afghanistan. When permission to land the plane was not given in Lahore, it was forcibly landed in Amritsar, Punjab. The hijackers then tried to land it in Kabul, but this could not happen because there was no facility for landing at night. After that IC-814 was taken to Dubai, where it was refueled. After negotiations here, 26 passengers and the body of Rupin Katyal, a passenger killed by the hijacker, were released. Finally the plane was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where the passengers were held hostage for a week.
Masood Azhar had formed Jaish-e-Mohammed. This organization attacked the Indian Parliament in 2001. After that, Jaish-e-Mohammed was also behind the Mumbai attack in 2008 and the Pulwama attack in 2019. 40 security personnel were killed in the Pulwama attack.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)