Some secrets remain secrets forever. All the questions related to the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 25 years ago in 1999 are still pending. This was the longest hijacking incident in the history of India. Among the questions related to this incident which are still pending are a black briefcase and two red bags. What was kept in these briefcases and red bags is also still a mystery.
The story of the hijacking of IC-814 has come in the form of a series on Netflix. This series named ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’ has been directed by Anubhav Sinha. An attempt has been made to show every aspect related to this hijacking in this series. But some secrets are still left.
One of the red bags in the series was shown being placed in the cargo hold of IC-814 by terrorists at Kathmandu International Airport. It was said to contain explosives. Was there RDX or grenades? There is no official information about this. However, the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh has tried to tell something about this in his book ‘In Service of Emergent India – A Call to Honour’.
Whereas, the second red bag was with Jaswant Singh when he took the three released terrorists to Kandahar. The contents of that bag remain a mystery even today. Congress had demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into that red bag.
Then there is a black briefcase, which was taken by the Indian officer who accompanied Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh on the flight to Kandahar. So do you know how two red bags and a black briefcase are an integral part of the story of that hijack?
What was the Kandahar hijack?
On 24 December 1999, Indian Airlines flight IC-814 took off from Kathmandu to Delhi. There were 191 passengers including 15 crew members on board this plane. As soon as this plane entered Indian airspace, 5 terrorists hijacked it. The terrorists asked Captain Devi Sharan to take the plane to Kabul.
When the terrorists were told that the plane did not have enough fuel to go to Kabul, they asked to refuel it from Lahore. But Pakistan did not allow IC-814 to land at Lahore airport. Then the terrorists were left with no option and the flight was taken to Amritsar for refueling.
IC-814 remained at the Amritsar airport for about 50 minutes, but due to delay in refueling, the terrorists sensed something was wrong and forced Captain Devi Sharan to take off without refueling.
The plane was refueled in Dubai late at night. However, the Dubai authority put a condition to disembark women and children from the plane. After this, the terrorists released 27 passengers. They also took down the body of Rupin Katyal, who was murdered by the terrorists.
After refuelling, the plane was taken to Kandahar, which was ruled by the Taliban at that time. The plane stayed in Kandahar for six days. The hijackers demanded the release of 36 terrorists and $200 million in exchange for releasing the passengers. India held talks with the terrorists, in which the Taliban mediated. Eventually, India got the release of three terrorists – Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, after which the passengers were freed.
That red bag of Jaswant Singh
When these three terrorists were being taken to Kandahar, Jaswant Singh, the foreign minister in the Atal government, was also in that plane. He had a red bag with him. What was in this bag is still a mystery. However, in 2006, the Congress had claimed that it contained 200 million dollars, which were given to the terrorists. In 2006, Congress MP Madhusudan Mistry had raised this issue in Parliament.
Madhusudan Mistry had raised the question that what was the need for Jaswant Singh to go with those three terrorists. His question was, ‘What was in Singh’s red bag?’ Congress had demanded that if the Vajpayee government had paid the ransom, then a JPC inquiry should be conducted into it.
Jaswant Singh has written in his book ‘In Service of Emergent India – A Call to Honour’ that India had rejected the terrorists’ ransom demand of $200 million. What did Jaswant Singh carry with him in the red bag? This still remains a mystery.
What is the story of the black briefcase?
The red bag was not the only mysterious thing on the plane from India to Kandahar. There was also a black briefcase.
Senior journalist Sunetra Chaudhary, after talking to several officials, reported in 2019 that there were four young officers in that plane along with Jaswant Singh, who spent two hours protecting the terrorists. These included former CBI director AP Singh, who was then the CVC of Indian Airlines, SPG’s operations in-charge Ranjit Narayan, current head of National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) Satish Jha and current IG of Maharashtra Surendra Pandey. Sunetra Chaudhary had told that a team of SPG commandos was also with them at that time.
It was said in this report that there were 1 lakh dollars in the black briefcase. This amount was to be given for refueling in Kandahar. The estimate was 40 thousand dollars, but the team had taken more cash as a precaution.
Sunetra Chaudhary states in her report that ‘The team going from India to Kandahar knew that the Taliban would not give any receipt for the landing charge and refueling charge. AP Singh and Pankaj Srivastava were worried about this. They paid 40 thousand dollars which the Taliban wanted.’
An officer told Sunetra Choudhury that when he entered the plane, there was excreta and urine everywhere because he had no place to go for a week. However, Choudhury’s report revealed the secret of the black briefcase.
What was in the terrorists’ red bag?
Just like Jaswant Singh’s red bag, there was another red bag whose secret has also not been revealed till now. This red bag belonged to the terrorists. There is very limited information about it. However, in some places it has been described as a suitcase and not a bag.
Jaswant Singh also talks about that red bag in one chapter of his book. Jaswant Singh writes, ‘The day the passengers were freed, IC-814 was not taken out of Kandahar. Because I had received an alert that there was something in it, which would be blown up at midnight.’ Singh writes that that plane was kept in Kandahar for eight days and the mystery of that red bag remained forever.
Singh writes, ‘What was this red bag? What was kept in it? Why did the hijackers come to take it back?’ According to Singh, the secret of this red bag was revealed when the Taliban rule ended in 2001 and the Foreign Minister of the Taliban government, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, was arrested. Muttawakil was the one who was also negotiating with the hijackers.
Jaswant Singh writes in the book, ‘That red bag belonged to one of the hijackers. It contained explosives and perhaps the original passports of those terrorists. Perhaps in a hurry the terrorists had forgotten to take it with them.’ Some hijackers came back in Muttawakil’s red Pajero and were shown all the red bags kept in the cargo hold of IC-814. All this happened when all the hostage passengers had left from there. Finally a red bag or suitcase was identified.
It has been shown in the Netflix series that 17 kg of RDX was kept in that red bag. However, Jaswant Singh says that a plane was sent to bring back IC-814, which was being flown by Captain SPS Suri. SPS Suri had told that there were grenades in that red bag. Singh has told in his book that Suri came to know from the local people that they have found a bag, which contains five hand grenades.
What happened to the hijackers?
According to former Afghan ambassador Rahmatullah Hashmi, the five terrorists who hijackered IC-814 were seated in a vehicle and a convoy accompanied them to the Pakistani border.
Jaswant Singh writes in the book, ‘Hashmi had also said that he would not go to Pakistan through the normal route. Rather, he would use those secret routes which were used by the Mujahideen during the Russian occupation. On these routes, formalities like immigration and customs would also not have to be completed.’
The hijacking of IC-814 not only raised questions on the intelligence agencies but also on the ability to take political decisions. Like the mystery of two red bags and one black briefcase, even after 25 years, it is still a mystery as to where did the hijackers disappear?
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)