IC-814 hijack, a survivor’s account: ‘Only your family is worth the fight. Nothing else is’

On the afternoon of December 24, 1999, minutes after the IC-814 took off from Kathmandu, it was hijacked with 179 passengers and 11 crew members on board. The flight was taken to Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai and Kandahar. The ordeal would come to an end after a week of negotiations after which the Indian government released three terrorists — Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar — in exchange for the hostages. All but one passenger, Rupin Katyal, who was killed by the hijackers, returned to Delhi.

The hijacked plane at Kandahar airport, 25 years ago. (Special Arrangement)

The incident – one of the worst terrorist acts in India that raised serious questions about the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government’s response — recently inspired the Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.

Chhabra, then 45, believes that no show can ever capture the horror of mid-air captivity. “It was hellishly dark with the windows rolled down and the lights turned off. It was cold and we could barely feel our bodies. We were waiting to die and it was only when the government relented on initiating negotiations with the hostages and the terrorists thought they had the upper hand did they let us have food. Till then, for three days, I sucked on a slice of orange,” says Chhabra, who was seated in the same row as Rupin Katyal, the hostage who was killed.

In fact, Chhabra and Rupin were among the 20 men who were herded to the business class of the plane and tied up. “I realised we would be among the first hostages to be shot. In fact, when Rupin was roughed up and insisted on having water, I told him to keep quiet and not draw attention to himself. But he was in such pain that he kept asking for water. They then stabbed him in front of me multiple times. I knew I had to do something or I would meet the same fate,” says Chhabra.

Taliban militia members standing in front of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight at Kandahar Airport in December 1999. (Express archive photo)

After a while, he says, he asked one of the hijackers if he could use the washroom. “Once they allowed me to get up, I walked up to the washroom closest to the economy class. While exiting, I pretended to faint and rolled on to the first aisle seat in the economy class, hurting my ribs badly. One of the hijackers tried waking me up but then gave up as I did not open my eyes, pretending to be unconscious. And that’s how I remained in the economy class, holding on to dear life. But here, Rupin’s wife kept asking me about him and I could not tell the truth. That still hurts,” admits Chhabra.

The first few days after he returned home, he couldn’t sleep. His son Rahul, a public relations professional, says, “I was eight then, my brother was 13. But papa was a strong man and resumed his work within a week. After that incident, we became closer as a family.”

The incident left its mark, though. Chhabra turned into a doomscroller on airline hijackings and crashes and now obsessively reads up on latest innovations that can save passengers from a mid-air emergency. “I do not use social media much but I do follow the internet. I read about this scientist from Kyiv, who devised a capsule within the aircraft fuselage that can be ejected in a matter of seconds and evacuate the passengers. All with the help of a parachute,” says Chhabra.

He admits the incident has shaken him forever. “I am always suspicious about people in beanies or caps. I am always reading faces at airports,” he says.

Yet, he says, he has managed to remain apolitical though he follows news events closely. “Only your family is worth the fight. Nothing else is,” Chhabra adds.