Kandahar hijack: Even 16 years later, mystery surrounding RAW agent present in IC-814 remains unrevealed!

176 passengers and 15 crew members on board, were turned captives by the militants of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Among the hostages, there was one personality who forced the Indian authorities to act in an over-cautious manner.

16 years ago, on December 24, 1999, a group of jihadis linked to Pakistan’s ISI sneaked into Indian Airlines Flight 814 commonly known as IC 814. 176 passengers and 15 crew members on board, were turned captives by the militants of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Among the hostages, there was one personality who forced the Indian authorities to act in an over-cautious manner.

Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) agent Shashi Bhushan Singh Tomar had boarded the unfortunate flight and was held as an hostage. However, the terrorists did not identified him, else he would not had survived. (ALSO READ: IC-814 hijack: Bhartiya Janata Party hits back at Congress criticism)

His presence on the flight was confirmed by A S Dulat, the then head of RAW, through his latest book Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years. However, Dulat refrains from revealing the change of strategy adopted by Indian regime due to the presence of the under-cover officer.

The National Guard at Amritsar were all set to barge into the flight, which was halted by the extremists in the Punjab town. But the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government did not allow the forces to attack the hijacked plane resting in Amritsar citing the fear of civilian causalities.

As a result, India was forced to release three dreadful terrorists – Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, who later planned and executed  9/11 attacks, the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl and 2006 Mumbai terror attacks.

According to security experts, Tomar was the sole reason for denying the Punjab National Guards to attack the hijacked plane resting in Amritsar. The key RAW operative was not only essential for the Indian Intelligence, but had close links reaching till the then PM Vajpayee.

The proposal to prevent the National Guard’s commando from entering the aircraft at Amritsar was made by none other than N K Singh, the chief secretary of Vajpayee. Singh’s younger sister was married to Tomar, and hence, many believe that he took the call to stop the counter-terrorism force from barging into the hijacked plane.

The uncanny details of the decision-making during that moment are known to very few people linked to the Indian establishment. One of the persons, who is best suited to reveal the details is A S Dulat, the then RAW chief. However, he has adopted a muted response and his best-seller Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, conveniently chooses to ignore the part involving Tomar in the Kandahar incident. The former intelligence chief cites the provisions of draconian Officials Secrets Act to justify his ‘tight-lipped’ response on the subject.