People of India can never forget the sensational hijack of Kathmandu-Delhi flight on Dec 24,1999 which resulted in huge controversy in Indian politics.
Five hijackers hijacked the Kathmandu-Delhi flight with 180 passengers and crew on board diverting it to Kandahar in Afghanistan which was ruled by Taliban during that time.
The then Vajpayee led Indian government was forced to release five dreaded militants like Jaish e Mohamad chief Maulana Masood Azhar who later carried out attack on Indian parliament in 2001, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, to free the passengers on IC-814.
India's NSA Ajit Doval speaking to scribes launched bilstering attack saying "There were a lot of Taliban on the tarmac with their weapons," and he questioned "If these people were not getting active ISI support in Kandahar, we could have got the hijacking vacated,"
He revealed "We were getting very good intelligence about all that was happening," Ajit Doval in the book penned by Myra Macdonald 'Defeat is an Orphan: How Pakistan lost the Great South Asian War',said "The ISI had removed all the pressure we were trying to put on the hijackers." Even their safe exit was guaranteed, so they had no need to negotiate an escape route. "Normally that is not the way hijackers talk. Normally the biggest fear is how to get out,"
Doval said "In a normal hijacking, the stop-clock is for them," and added it was New Delhi rather than the hijackers that lost its nerve. Doval describes the three released men as "ISI-sponsored terrorists".
