Sarabjit Singh, former Director General of Police in Punjab, was at the center of the action when a hijacked Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu landed in Amritsar in December 1999. He recalled the back-and-forth with authorities in New Delhi during the crisis. Flight IC 814 stayed in Amritsar for about 45 minutes before taking off again, eventually landing in Kandahar. There, it remained for several days as Indian officials negotiated with terrorists to free the hostages. Letting the plane leave Amritsar was considered a big mistake, as it then entered hostile territory. This hijacking was recently dramatised in the Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.
In an interview with The Tribune, Sarabjit Singh shared that he learned about the hijacking from the news. Though he was in Chandigarh, he trusted his instinct and sent two commando units to Amritsar airport just in case. He stayed in contact with IB chief Shyamal Dutta and former R&AW chief AS Dulat. Meanwhile, DIG Border Jaswinder Singh reached the ATC tower at Amritsar airport and spoke with the flight captain, Devi Sharan.
He said, “My first reaction, when I was told that the plane had landed in Amritsar, before I could talk to Delhi, was, ‘Don’t refuel’. Devi Sharan was stressing, ‘Please give us fuel, please give us fuel’. In the meantime, Delhi is telling me to do something, and I said, ‘Look, I have two companies out there, they’re armed with automatic weapons, but we don’t have any equipment specific to hijacking. We don’t even have a ladder to reach the plane. Shooting will take place. And if shooting takes place, I cannot tell you how many will die’.”
The plan was to delay things by refusing fuel and wait for the NSG to arrive. Sarabjit was shocked when Captain Devi Sharan took off after 45 minutes, even though the plane had less than 10 minutes of fuel. It flew to Lahore, got refueled, and headed to Dubai and then Kandahar. Praising Sharan’s braverym Sarabjit said, “I would give full marks to Devi Sharan for courage and coolness. He pretended to be scared, but I could see that the man was in full control of what he was trying to do… I could never have imagined that a chap with 9 minutes of fuel would’ve taken off. I was working on the concept no-fuel-no-takeoff… No pilot with a sensible mind would take off like this…”
In response to criticism, Sarabjit explained, “I had warned the people in Delhi that I have people waiting on the ground, but if we take action, there would be shooting, and people will die. As per our protocol, the central CMG handles hijacks, and they told me, ‘Don’t shoot’. I told Shyamal, ‘If you’re ready, I’ll start’, but he said, ‘Don’t. Disable the plane, but don’t move in with your chaps’. I told him, ‘Goli chalegi toh log marenge’, and he said, ‘Goli mat chalao’.”
Vijay Varma starrer IC184 The Kandahar Hijack is the re-telling of the infamous plane hijack in India’s defence history. It has piqued the nation’s interest and the Indian officials involved in the negotiations are recalling the ordeal.
Comments
0 comment