The mini-series “IC 814: The Kidnapping of Kandahar” stars Vijay Varma, Patralekhaa and Naseeruddin Shah. (Image source: Instagram)
According to government sources, the fake call in the name of Union government joint secretary J Lal led staff at Amritsar's Gururam Dasji International Airport to remove the barricades and allow the aircraft to fly away
Netflix's multi-star series “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijacking” caused a nationwide stir by recreating the 1999 terrorist hijacking of an Air India flight and reignited discussions about the incident some 25 years ago. Now, government sources told CNN-News18 that the call made in the name of Union government joint secretary J Lal allowed the plane to take off from Amritsar and leave Indian airspace.
On December 24, 1999, five masked men hijacked IC 814, which flew to New Delhi 40 minutes after taking off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. The hijackers forced the captain, Devi Sharan, to fly the plane into Pakistani airspace, but he did not receive permission to land. The plane then landed in Amritsar with only 10 minutes of fuel remaining.
After the plane was refueled, the hijackers forced the pilot to fly the plane to Lahore. Although he did not get permission from the Pakistani air traffic control department, the pilot made a desperate landing. The air traffic control department turned off all lights and navigation equipment at the airport.
But at the last minute, they got permission and refueled here and headed to Dubai. The flight landed at Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates after being denied permission. The hijackers released 27 of the 176 passengers on board, including the body of 25-year-old Rupin Katyal, who was stabbed to death by the hijackers.
After that, the plane finally landed at the hijackers' original destination, the Taliban-controlled Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan. It was here that negotiations between the hijackers and the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government ended on December 30 with the release of three terrorists – Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masoud Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar – all hostages.
According to government sources, the fake call, made in the name of Union government joint secretary J Lal, led staff at the Gururam Dasji International Airport in Amritsar to remove the barricades and allow the aircraft to fly away.
Sources said that after landing in Amritsar, the captain wanted to refuel the aircraft, but as people did not realize that it was a “missing aircraft”, no apparent rescue operations were carried out. They added that the captain knew the situation was hopeless but did his best to keep the plane and passengers safe.
At the same time, they said, calls came in from the crisis management team to halt the flight and have the tanker tanker move in slowly so the hijackers thought they were there to refuel.
These CMG calls were identified as Rubey Lal and another call came from the union cabinet secretary himself, who wanted the plane to stay on the ground so that the National Security Guard (NSG) could take action and call the local Punjab police alarm.
However, sources said that upon receiving a call asking the plane to refuel immediately, the airport staff quickly acted on the instructions without realizing that it was a person named J Lal posing as joint secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. He also directed authorities to provide a clear path for flights immediately.
Amritsar airport was short-staffed at night and allowed planes to fly away amid chaos, frustrating the government's plans, sources said.
Sources said that according to various theories, it was either the Pakistanis who wanted the plane out of Indian control or people in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's office who did not want the commandos to take action as their relatives were on board the plane.
