A passenger on the hijacked IC 814 flight, Pooja Kataria, revealed that one of the terrorists demanded the passengers convert to Islam. She recounted the harrowing events that unfolded during the seven-day hijacking, noting, “He used to say that Islam is a better religion, much better than Hinduism.”
The hijacking of IC 814 on December 24, 1999, has garnered renewed attention following the release of the Netflix web series “IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack.”
On December 24, 1999, flight IC 814, en route from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, to Delhi with 176 passengers on board, was hijacked and taken to several locations before ultimately landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Among the passengers were Rakesh and Pooja Kataria, a young couple returning home from their honeymoon in Nepal. “He used to say Islam is a better religion, much better than Hinduism,” she remembered.
During the interview, Pooja Kataria described a tense moment when the hijackers, identified by their codenames “Burger,” “Doctor,” “Bhola,” “Shankar,” and “Chief,” announced the hijacking and instructed passengers to lower their heads. Reflecting on the confusion of that day, Pooja said, “We didn’t fully grasp what was happening… We assumed they would ask for a ransom and it would be over quickly.” Sadly, the ordeal lasted much longer than anyone had expected.
As negotiations with the Indian Government dragged on, the hijackers grew increasingly desperate. “On December 30, they told us, ‘We will have to start killing you now; your government is not doing anything for your release,'” he recalled.
The siege concluded after seven days when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led Government partially met the hijackers’ demands by releasing three terrorists: Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zarga. During the hijacking, one passenger was killed by the terrorists.
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