26 years ago in 1999, it was the last week of December when people were preparing to welcome the New Year, but an incident turned the celebration of Indians into sadness. Indian Airlines flight IC 814, which took off from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, was hijacked by Pakistani terrorists. The hijack drama, which lasted for almost a week, had electrified the entire country. That incident also has a Mumbai connection. Earlier there was a conspiracy to hijack the plane from Mumbai.
Kandhar Plane Hijack: On December 24, 1999, like the whole world, the then Mumbai Crime Branch chief D. Shivanandan was watching the coverage related to IC 814 on TV in his office in this building. After the hijacking incident, the police in Mumbai also became alert and were closely monitoring the entire incident. Suddenly RAW officer Hemant Karkare arrived to meet Shivanandan.
What did the RAW officers say?
Karkare told Shivanandan that Mumbai link to the IC 814 kidnapping case has been found and he needs the help of Mumbai Crime Branch. After this, Karkare gave some important information related to the hijackers to Shivanandan. One information was that an accomplice of the hijackers is in Mumbai and is in contact with a terrorist organization of Pakistan through mobile phone. Karkare gave the mobile number of the hijackers’ Mumbai associate to D Shivanandan. Karkare also told them that he checked the name and address of this mobile holder, but they were fake.
an urgent meeting was called
After this, D. Shivanandan immediately called a meeting of the officers of all the units of Mumbai Crime Branch. A team was immediately sent to the mobile service provider to get information about the call details and telephone tower ID of the accomplice of the hijackers in Mumbai whom Karkare had mentioned. Call monitoring started.
Important information received again
After listening to the conversation of the caller for about three days, the team of Mumbai Crime Branch was able to know only that the person who was calling from Mumbai, there is a mosque near his house, because the sound of Azaan was coming. There are many buffaloes in that area, because the sound of buffaloes was also coming continuously, but in the process of listening to the conversation, the Mumbai Crime Branch team came to know of an important information on December 28, 1999 at 6 pm.
Pakistan connection came to light
The hijacker’s accomplice sitting in Mumbai called Pakistan that he did not have any money for further planning. He needs one lakh rupees for further conspiracy. His leader sitting in Pakistan asked him to arrange the money in about half an hour. The team of Mumbai Crime Branch kept waiting for that half an hour, so that they could know where the hijackers’ accomplice in Mumbai was sent for the money.
decision not to arrest
About 45 minutes later, a call came from Pakistan to Mumbai and the caller was asked to come outside the Shalimar Hotel located in Bhindi Bazaar in South Mumbai and collect Rs 1 lakh from a hawala operator there. Mumbai IRA team and Mumbai Crime Branch team immediately informed this to the Union Home Ministry in Delhi. A meeting was held in Delhi for about 20 minutes and it was decided that the caller from Mumbai should not be arrested immediately while collecting the money, because the hijackers had not released the passengers till then.
keep following
Mumbai Crime Branch Chief sent about a dozen officers in plain clothes outside Shalimar Hotel. As soon as the accused took the money there at around 9.30 pm, he was identified. He sat in the taxi. Mumbai Crime Branch officials also sat in the taxi. The accused got down from the taxi outside Mumbai Central Railway Station and boarded the Churchgate-Borivali local train. Mumbai Crime Branch officer also sat in the same local. After about 35 minutes, the accused got down at Jogeshwari station and then sat in the auto and started going somewhere. Mumbai Crime Branch officials also sat in three different autos and kept following the auto of the accused.
caught like this
The accused landed at Behrambagh in Jogeshwari and went to a room in a chawl. Mumbai Crime Branch officials saw the whereabouts of the accused from a distance. This information was immediately sent to RAW officials in Delhi. Mumbai Crime Branch officers were asked to wait and watch. On December 31, 1999, when the passengers of IC 814 plane were released in Kandahar, the Mumbai Crime Branch team raided the house of the accused who had called Pakistan from Mumbai in Behram Bagh. A total of five accused – Rafiq Mohammad, Abdul Latif, Mustaq Azmi, Mohammad Asif Bablu and Gopal Singh Mann were caught from there.
The secret is revealed again
RAW and Mumbai Crime Branch team interrogated everyone. It was revealed that Abdul Latif was in contact with the terror group in Pakistan from Mumbai. Mohammad Asif and Rafiq Mohammad were Pakistani citizens, while the accused Gopal Mann was a Nepali. All the accused also told that three more Pakistani citizens were with them in Behram Bagh for many days, but they escaped at the last moment.
Abdul Latif told the Indian investigation team the names of the hijackers who were in the IC 814 plane. Among them, Ibrahim Akhtar was a native of Bahawalpur and Syed Akhtar was a native of Karachi. Sumi Ahmed Curry and mechanic Zahoor Ibrahim were also residents of Karachi, while the fifth hijacker named Shakir was a native of Sindh.
All the accused were living in Vaishali Nagar of Jogeshwari since July 1999. He had also got Indian passport made by giving fake documents. For this, he had also given huge amount of money to six passport officers, two postmen and two policemen, so that his address could not be verified. After getting the passport, these people went to Mumbai airport to hatch a conspiracy to hijack a plane, but seeing the security arrangements there, the plan to hijack the plane from Mumbai had to be rejected and Kathmandu was chosen under Plan B.
weapons recovered
During the raids conducted on the arrested people, a large number of automatic weapons like AK 56 rifles, hand grenades, rocket launchers, pistols, detonators, Indian and American currency were also recovered from different locations in Mumbai. This shows that there was a conspiracy to carry out some more terrorist incidents in Mumbai. Mumbai Police handed over all the arrested accused to CBI for further investigation.
