IC 814: Former RAW chief AS Dulat reflects on ‘mistake’ to allow aircraft to leave Amritsar, says they considered ‘puncturing tyres, blocking it with bowser’

Former R&AW chief AS Dulat, who was chief at the time of the IC 814 hijack, spoke about the perceived failures that led to the hijacked plane being allowed to take off from Amritsar.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: September 6, 2024 06:52 PM IST

5 min read

A still from IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.

Director Anubhav Sinha’s new series, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, speaks about the behind-the-scenes bureaucracy that unfolded while five terrorists took control of an Indian Airlines flight in December 1999, ultimately leading the release of three high-profile terrorists after a week of negotiations. The series purports that the operation was carried out by the al-Qaeda, and that Indian authorities were caught unawares and unprepared to handle the grave situation. In a new interview, the chief of the R&AW at the time, AS Dulat, and Anand Arni, a former special secretary at the R&AW, who also happened to be a part of the negotiations team in Kandahar, spoke about the operation.

They spoke in detail about what was seen as a great failure on the part of the Indian authorities, which was allowing the hijacked plane to take off from Amritsar, after which, Dulat said, the terrorists had the upper hand. A Crisis Management Group was set up almost immediately, but Dulat admitted that there was a lot of ‘dillydallying’ that led to things getting out of hand. He said that all possibilities were considered when the plane was grounded in Amritsar, including puncturing the tyres and blocking it with a bowser, but the final orders didn’t come through. Ground forces in Punjab were also prepared to storm the plane, but once again, final orders didn’t come through.

Also read – IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack: In the best Indian show of the year, Anubhav Sinha puts ‘babugiri’ on blast

Asked why the plane was allowed to take off from Amritsar, he told The Print, “Because there was too much dillydallying in the CMG, nobody was willing to take a call. The Punjab Police was blamed for what happened in Amritsar.” Dulat recalled a conversation that he had with the DG in Chandigarh at the time, who told him, that he was waiting for orders from Delhi all the time, and that the only indication provided by Delhi was to try and avoid bloodshed. The DG said that he had commandos on ground who were ready to storm the aircraft, but that it would’ve led to casualties. The chief minister of Punjab at the time, Parkash Singh Badal, told the DG, “Try and see that there is no bloodshed in Amritsar.”

Dulat said that the only instruction that was required at the time for the DG or the Punjab Police was, “This aircraft should not leave Amritsar at any cost.” He said, “No such instruction was given. I was there, I don’t want to name names, but all of us were responsible.” Dulat admitted that storming the aircraft would’ve led to casualties, but they were prepared for that eventuality. “That possibility is always there, that’s the chance we had to take. Did we want to storm the aircraft or did we not want to storm the aircraft, and till date, I don’t have an answer for that,” he said. “Because no decision was taken.”

Former Special Director of the Indian Intelligence Bureau and former Secretary of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) AS Dulat with Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra. (Twitter/@INCIndia)

He said that authorities also contemplated ‘sending commandos from Delhi’, but that this would’ve taken at least three hours. The CMG, Dulat said, was headed by the Cabinet Secretary, and that decisions were taken on sub-PMO level at that time. The NSA came into the picture only after the aircraft had taken off from Amritsar. Asked if it occurred to anybody that they should block the aircraft from taking off with an oil tanker, Dulat said, “All these things were considered. The DIB called the DG Punjab and said, ‘Why don’t you puncture the tyres of the aircraft?’ And the DG told him, ‘Am I going to use a peashooter?’ A lot of things were considered, puncturing the tyres, putting the bowser in front, but clear orders needed to go out.”

Dulat admitted that this can be described as a ‘failure of the government’, because the CMG was a part of the government. “I think it has been acknowledged largely that (Amritsar) is where the mistake took place. Once the aircraft left Amritsar, it was totally out of our control,” he said. IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack opened to positive reviews and some controversy for perceived misidentification of the five terrorists. Names of the Indian officers were changed, and the R&AW chief in the show was played by Aditya Srivastava.

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