Book Review

BOOK REVIEW
OF
IC814 HIJACKED!
This great piece of work is written by Flt. Engr. Anil K. Jaggia, and Saurabh
Shukla. Jaggia, 58, operated hijacked flight IC814. He is Chief of Flight
Engineering with Indian Airlines, and has 20,000 flight hours’ experience as
Flight Engineer. An instructor and examiner Flight Engineer on the Airbus
A300 aircraft, he received his technical education at ATTI (Air Technical
Training Institute), Calcutta, and is also a graduate of the 35th Air Transport
Course at Oxford, U.K. Saurabh Shukla, 27, is an investigative journalist
with The Indian Express. A masters in International Studies from the School
of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), he was a
British Chevening Scholar at the Centre for Security Studies, University of
Hull, U.K. He completed his Second Masters in Security Studies in 1999.
While in U.K. he did a course on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare. He has
been nominated as a fellow by 21st Century Trust, London.
In less than three months from the date of hijack of IC814, Jaggia and
Shukla had published a day-by-day account of the unfortunate hijack. The
narration is quick and professional. This book is difficult to put down until
one has turned the last page. The book is dedicated in the memory of
Rupin Katyal’s tragic death that robbed a father of an only son and a bride
of her 20-day old husband. The book starts with a map showing the inside
view of the aircraft. The aircraft was on a scheduled flight from Kathmandu
to Delhi when it was hijacked my men claiming to be Kashmiri Militants.
Jaggia’s name for the head of the hijack mission is “Red Cap” the man the
other hijackers called, “Chief”. Jaggia found that Red Cap had “an accent
similar to those of Pakistani taxi drivers in Sharjah. Second hijacker was
Burger. There were a total of 5 hijackers. While Jaggia shares the tension
and frightening chain of events in the Aircraft, Shukla takes us to the
airspace just above Lucknow. He gives an ironic information that a VVIP
Boeing aircraft was flying just four minutes ahead of the hijacked plane,
and its occupant was none other than the then Indian Prime Minister, A.B.
Vajpayee and the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Sharad Yadav. The
country’s most powerful person remained ignorant of the crisis. It is
intriguing why the pilot of the ‘Boeing chose to remain quiet and did not
pass on the message of hijacking to the PM’s entourage. The hijackers
demanded that they be taken to Lahore, confident that they would be able
to get landing permission at Lahore. As the fuel started running out, and the
permission to land in Lahore remained elusive, they finally landed in
Amritsar for re-fuelling. But the commando operation was delayed and the
plane was taken to Dubai where injured and sick people were released.
And eventually it was taken to Kandahar where it sat on the ground for
several days. Thirty-six terrorists were demanded by the hijackers, but
eventually three terrorists were released: Omar Sheikh, Maulana Masood
Azhar and a Kashmiri separist Latram. After holding firm for several days,
the aircraft was finally released. The book ends with the passenger
manifesto, with the full name-list of all passengers on board. Then there is
a three page day-by-day account of the hijack by passenger Rajesh
Naithani. Additionally, the two writers have also drawn lists of those in the
Crisis Management Group (CMG) and those in the Central Committee (CC)
who dealt with the crisis from the ground. The book takes us from hope to
despair, from dismay to joy through page after page of crisp narration. The
book lacks minor: Jaggia and Shukla have only left out the emotional
element; there is little of the passenger’s reactions to the whole crisis. The
book moves too fast. Seems Jaggia and Shukla have written the book in a
hurry. But they are minor. The book is planned and organized. It clarified
everything happening on board. The book is different, descriptive
intelligence could be sensed in the book itself. The book answers all the
questions like; what was the intelligence failure that led to the hijacking of
Indian Airlines’ flight IC814 from Kathmandu? Could the aircraft have been
stopped at Amritsar airport? Was a commando raid planned on the
aircraft? How was Rupin Katyal killed? Was the plane’s destination always
intended to be Kandahar? Was it merely prophetic that the hijackers had
predicted the end of all negotiations on the millennium eve?
IC814 HIJACKED! Is a must read for all those wanting to know behind-the-
scenes realities both on board and on the ground. IC814 HIJACKED! takes
you through the events that ran up to the release of the prisoners and
passengers.

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