STRATEGIC DECISION IN CRITICAL SITUATION

COMPARISION OF TWO NATION INDIA & ISRAEL

By R.C.Dohare B.E. (mech), PGDCSc, M.E. (Env.Sc. &Eng.)

Sr. Manager SAIL

Introduction: - I strongly believe that terrorism can not be defeated until unless
we change our attitude & approach towards the critical situation as it is shown by the
Israel government in 1976.operation Entebbe. What we have done 1999december its
after effect was visible in 2001 Parliament attack, Mumbai attack 2008november. If
we had taken lesson from operation Entebbe than picture could be different.

List of hijacking of Indian aeroplanes

1971 January 30 : An Indian Airlines plane on its way from Srinagar to Jammu
was hijacked by Hashim Quereshi and Ashraf Quereshi of the JKLF, who took it to
Lahore. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then Foreign Minister of Pakistan rushed to Lahore and
met the hijackers and helped them get maximum international publicity. On February
1, he persuaded them to release the crew and passengers who were then sent by road
to Amritsar. The Government of India sought permission of Pakistan to send a
replacement crew to fly the aircraft back to India. Pakistan authorities denied the
permission. Instead it is alleged they supplied petrol to the hijackers with which they
burnt the aircraft on February 2. From Lahore Airport the hijackers were taken into a
procession as heroes.

1981 September 29 : An Indian airlines plane on flight from Srinagar to Delhi is

hijacked and taken to Lahore. Pakistan took commando action and got all passengers
released.

1982 August 22: A lone militant, armed with a pistol and a hand grenade, hijacked
a Boeing 737 on a scheduled flight from Bombay to New Delhi carrying 69 persons.
Indian security forces killed the hijacker and rescued all passengers.

1982 August: An Indian Airlines flight from Jodhpur to Delhi was hijacked. The
hijacked plane landed at Amritsar.

1984 July 6 : An Indian Airlines jet carrying 255 passengers and a crew of nine on
flight from Srinagar to New Delhi was hijacked and forced to land in Lahore
Pakistan.The hijackers were reported to be armed with pistols, daggers and
explosives. The hijackers' surrender to Pakistan authorities ended a 17- hour ordeal
for the plane's passengers and crew, who remained aboard the A-300 Airbus in
suffocating heat, with little food and water.

1984 August 24: Seven young hijackers demanded an Indian Airlines jetliner, on a
domestic flight from Chandigarh to Srinagar with 100 passengers on board ,be flown
to the United States. The plane was taken to Lahore and then to Karachi and finally to
Dubai where the defense minister of UAE negotiated the release of the passengers. It
was related to the secessionist struggle in the Indian state of Punjab.The hijacker was
subsequently repatriated by UAE authorities to India, who handed over the pistol
 recovered from the hijacker. Investigations revealed that the pistol was manufactured
in Germany and was part of 75 pistols consigned from Germany to CAO, PO Box
1040, Islamabad. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry denied the accusation.

1993 April 24: Indian Airlines aircraft bound for Srinagar via Jammu from Delhi
is hijacked. The hijacker wanted to take the plane to Lahore but Pakistan authorities
refused permission. The plane landed at Amritsar where the hijacker was killed and
passengers freed.

1999-2000: Indian Airlines Flight 814 flying from Kathmandu is

hijacked and diverted it to Kandahar. After a week-long stand-off India
agrees to release three jailed Kashmiri militants in exchange for the
hostages. 1 hostage was stabbed to death and his body thrown on the
tarmac as a "warning attack"

List of notable aircraft hijackings

1960s

1961: aircraft forced to circle Lisbon to drop leaflets. 6 hijackers were involved.

23 July 1968: To date, the only successful El Al hijacking attempt, as three

members of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijack El Al Flight
426 from Rome to Tel Aviv. Diverting to Algiers the negotiations extend over forty
days. Both the hijackers and the hostages go free.

1970s

1970, March 17: Eastern Air Lines Shuttle Flight 1320, carrying passengers from
Newark to Boston was hijacked around 7:30 P.M. by John J. Divivo who was armed
with a .38 caliber revolver. Captain Robert Wilbur Jr., 35, a former Air Force pilot
who had only been promoted to captain six months prior, was shot in his arm by the
suicidal hijacker. And yet with a .38 slug in his arm and bleeding profusely, he flew
his aircraft safely to a landing while talking to the tower, telling them his copilot was
shot (but not himself) and needed an ambulance. His copilot, First Officer James
Hartley, 31, was mortally shot without warning by John J. Divivo and he collapsed.
Divivo then turned the gun on the captain, wounding him when suddenly Hartley
arose, ripped the gun from Divivo's hand, and shot him three times before relapsing
into unconsciousness. Although wounded and slumped between the seats, Divivo
arose and began clawing at Captain Wilbur, attempting to force a crash. That's why
Wilbur hit him over the head with the gun he had retrieved from where it had fallen
on the center console.[1] The pilot was able to land the plane safely at Logan
International Airport, and the hijacker was arrested immediately.

1970, March 31: Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crew
from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by nine members of the Japanese Red Army
group. 23 passengers were freed at Fukuoka Airport, mainly children or old aged. 108
passengers and all crew members with Red Army group left Fukuoka, bound for
Gimpo Airport, near Seoul. Three days after, Red Army group ask to be flown to
North Korean capital Pyongyang, before leaving from Seoul, 103 passenger and crew
hostages are freed, and nine Red Army group members surrendered to North Korean
authorities.

September 1970: As part of the Dawson's Field hijackings, PFLP members

attempted to hijack four aircraft simultaneously. They succeeded on three and forced
the planes to fly to the Jordanian desert, where the hijackers blew up the aircraft after
releasing most of the hostages. The final hostages were freed in exchange for seven
Palestinian prisoners. The fourth attack on an El Al plane by two people including
Leila Khalid was foiled by armed guards aboard.

October 15 1970, Aeroflot Flight 244 was hijacked from Batumi, Adjar ASSR,
Georgian SSR, to Trabzon, Turkey by a Lithuanian national and his son. An air
hostess was killed and some other crew were injured in a shootout. The hijackers later
received American citizenship.

1971, January 30: Indian Airlines Fokker F27 on scheduled Srinagar-Jammu

flight is hijacked to Lahore by two self-proclaimed Kashmir Separatists. All
passengers were released by February 2 and repatriated to India, but the aircraft was
blown-up--leading to an India-Pakistan air-travel ban, and suspension of over flight
rights until 1976.

1971, March: Philippine Airlines flight was hijacked in March 1971 by six
students from the Mindanao State University, opposed to the Marcos government.
The plane landed in Guangzhou (Canton) in southern China, and the Chinese
authorities let the students stay in the country. The plane was then allowed to fly back
to the Philippines. No one was hurt. One of the students, Jaime FlorCruz, later
became a journalist in Beijing, working for TIME magazine, and CNN.

1972, January 12: Braniff Flight 38, a Boeing 727 airliner, was hijacked as it
departed Houston, Texas bound for Dallas, Texas. The lone armed hijacker, Billy
Gene Hurst, Jr., allowed all 94 passengers to deplane after landing at Dallas Love
Field but continued to hold the 7 crewmembers hostage, demanding to fly to South
America and asking for US $2 million, parachutes, and jungle survival gear, amongst
other items. After a 6-hour standoff, the entire crew secretly fled while Hurst was
distracted examining the contents of a package delivered by Dallas police. Police
officers stormed the craft shortly afterwards and arrested Hurst without serious
incident.

1972, January 28: TWA Flight #2, Los Angeles to New York, was hijacked by
con man and bank robber Garrett Trapnell while over Chicago. Trapnell demanded
$306,800 in cash (to recoup the loss of a recent court case), the release of Angela
Davis (as well as that of a friend of his who was also imprisoned), and clemency from
President Richard Nixon. The FBI was able to retake the aircraft during a crew switch
at Kennedy Airport; Trapnell was shot and wounded, no one else was hurt. Trapnell's
hijacking came after a string of domestic incidents and resulted in an overhaul of
flight procedures by the Nixon Administration, procedures that remained in place
until the September 11, 2001 hijackings.
 1976: The Palestinian hijack of Air France Flight 139 is brought
to an end at Entebbe Airport, Uganda by Operation Entebbe: Israeli
commandos assault the building holding the hijackers and hostages
killing all Palestinian hijackers and rescuing 105 persons, almost all
Israeli hostages; three passengers and one commando are killed.

1976: TWA Flight 355 was hijacked by Croatian separatists. Some passengers
were allowed to deplane in Canada before the hijackers continued on to Iceland, then
France, where they released the remaining passengers and surrendered to authorities.
One New York police officer was killed while working on a bomb which the hijackers
had planted at Grand Central Station.

1977: Lufthansa Flight 181 (also known as the Land shut) was hijacked by
Palestinian highjackers on a flight from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt. The ordeal
ended in Mogadishu, Somalia when GSG 9 commandos stormed the plane. Three
hijackers were killed and 86 hostages were freed. The pilot was killed. The hand of
West Germany's Red Army Faction was suspected.

1978, September 30: Finnair Flight 405 was hijacked by Aarno Lamminparras;
the flight was en route from Oulu to Helsinki. He requested a ransom of 675,000
markka, which he received, and as a result he released all 44 passengers on board.
Then he ordered the plane to fly him to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and then back
to Oulu. He returned home and was arrested there the next day. He served seven years
and one month in prison and now lives in Sweden. One of the passengers on board
the hijacked plane was singer Monica Aspelund.

1980s

1981: A Pakistan International Airlines jet is hijacked and taken to Kabul, where
one passenger is killed before the plane flies on to Damascus; the hostages are finally
released after 13 days when the Pakistani Government agrees to free fifty political
prisoners.

1981: The Hijacking of Flight Garuda Indonesia GA 206 on 28 March 1981. This
was the first serious Indonesian airline hijacking, since the first case was a desperate
Marine hijacker who was killed by the pilot himself. The hijackers, a group called
Commando Jihad, hijacked the DC 9 "Woyla", onroute from Palembang to Medan,
and ordered the pilot to fly the plane to Colombo, Sri Lanka. But since the plane
didn't have enough fuel, it refueled in Penang, Malaysia and then to Don Muang,
Thailand. The hijackers demanded the release of Commando Jihad members
imprisoned in Indonesia, and US $ 1.5 million, as well as a plane to take those
prisoners to an unspecified destination. The Kopassus commandos who took part in
this mission trained for only three days with totally unfamiliar weapons, brilliantly
executed this fast-paced operation. One of the Kopassus commandos was shot by the
hijacker leader, who then shot himself. All the other hijackers were killed. All the
hostages were saved.

1981: An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to London was hijacked and diverted to
Le Touquet in France by a man demanding that the Pope release the third secret of
Fatima. While authorities negotiated with the hijacker by radio in the cockpit, French
special forces entered the rear of the aircraft and overpowered him.
 February 1982: An Kuwait Airways flight, KU561 from Kuwait to Libya via
Beirut on the return was hijacked on the ground at Beirut airport in Beirut in Lebanon
by Hamza akl Hamieh demanding news and release of Imam Musa al Sadr, who had
disappeared in Libya in 1978. The Captain Les Bradley flew the damaged plane back
to Kuwait after Hamza and his collegues left the plane, disappearing into the night,
leaving a warning for Kuwait Airways to drop the Kuwait Libya Beirut Kuwait route.
There were no casualties.

1982 (July 1): A Sri Lankan, identified as Sepala Ekanayake, who was 33 years
old, hijacked an Alitalia jumbo jet from Bangkok, Thailand, in order to be united with
his wife and child and to return to Sri Lanka.

1982 (August 22): A lone Sikh militant, armed with a pistol and a hand grenade,
hijacked a Indian Airlines on a scheduled flight from Mumbai to New Delhi carrying
69 persons. Indian security forces killed the hijacker and rescued all passengers. Peter
Lamont, production designer working on the James Bond film Octopussy, was a
passenger.

1983: Tbilisi hijacking incident.

1984 August 24: Seven young Sikh hijackers demanded an Indian Airlines jetliner
flying from Delhi to Srinagar[7] be flown to the United Arab Emirates. The plane was
taken to UAE where the defense minister of UAE negotiated the release of the
passengers. It was related to the Sikh secessionist struggle in the Indian state of
Punjab.

1984: December 3: Kuwait Airways Flight 221 Lebanese Shi'a hijackers divert a
Kuwait Airways flight to Tehran. Two American USAID officials are shot dead and
dumped on the tarmac. The plane is taken by Iranian security forces who were
dressed as custodial staff.

1985: Lebanese Shi'a Amal hijackers divert TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Beirut
with 153 people on board. The stand-off ends after Israel frees 31 Lebanese prisoners.
Among the passengers was famous Greek singer Demis Rossos

1985: Three Palestinian members of the Abu Nidal Organization hijacked on

November 23, its Athens to Cairo route, Egypt Air Flight 648 and fly it to Malta. All
together, 60 people died, most of them when Egyptian commandos stormed the
aircraft.

1986: 22 people are killed when Pakistani security forces storm Pan Am Flight 73
at Karachi, carrying 400 passengers and crew after a 16-hour siege.

1986: December 25: 63 people are killed when Iraqi Airways Flight 163 crashes
near Arar, Saudi Arabia due to an explosion in the cockpit. The plane was hijacked by
3 hijackers.

1988: March 8: Ovechkin family (a mother and her 10 children) attempted to

hijack a Tu 154 flight from Irkutsk to Leningrad while trying to escape from the
USSR. The plane landed on a military airfield near Vyborg and was then stormed. A
stewardess and three passengers were killed. The mother was killed by one of her
sons by her own request, and then four of them committed suicide.
 1988: Two Kuwaitis are killed in 1988 when Lebanese gunmen hijack a Kuwait
Airways Flight 422 (aljabriya) from Bangkok, Thailand and force it to fly to Algiers
with more than 110 people on board; the hijack ends after 16 days when the hijackers
free the remaining hostages and are allowed to leave Algiers.

1990s

1990: Hijackers seized a plane from the People's Republic of China which later
crashed as it tried to land in Guangzhou (aka Canton), killing 128 people.

1991: 26 March , Singapore Airlines Flight 117 hijacked by 4 individuals

claiming to be members of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Elite Singapore Special
Operations Force members stormed the plane on 27 March, killing all four hijackers
and freeing all 118 passengers and 9 crew in an operation lasting just 30 seconds.
None of the passengers and crew were hurt.

1993: 11 February, Lufthansa Flight 592 scheduled service from Frankfurt to

Cairo and Addis Ababa, was hijacked at gunpoint by a lone Ethiopian man. The A310
initially flew to Hannover for fuel before flying to New York's JFK where the hijacker
surrendered after brief negotiations. No passengers or crew were injured or killed.

1993:Two separate hijackings of Indian Airlines aircraft to Amritsar, Punjab,

India in the month of April. In the first case the hijacker was talked into surrendering;
in the second, the Commandos stormed in and killed the sole hijacker. The Amritsar
Deputy Commissioner Karan Bir Singh Sidhu was conferred the Convoy Safe Skies
Award.

1993: Russian Aeroflot passenger jet flying from Perm to Moscow diverted to
Gardermoen airport by two Iranian brothers. Hijackers surrendered and hostages went
free. The hijackers were later given asylum in Norway for humanitarian reasons.

1994: FedEx Flight 705 hijacked by disgruntled employee Auburn Calloway as

it left Memphis, Tennessee, with the intention of using it as a cruise missile against
FedEx HQ. He was subdued by the flight crew before an emergency landing back at
Memphis.

1994: Air France Flight 8969 was hijacked from Algiers by four GIA terrorists
planning to crash into the Eiffel Tower in central Paris. After the murder of 3
passengers, GIGN commandos stormed the plane in Marseilles, killing all hijackers
and freeing all passengers. This hijacking marked a landmark: the first known
hijacking where the intention was to destroy the aircraft and passengers, and use the
fuelled aircraft as a missile to destroy ground targets, rather than to achieve political
and publicity goals.

1995: Iranian defector and flight attendant Rida Garari hijacked Kish Air flight
707, which landed in Israel. No casualties.

1996: Hemus Air Tu-154 aircraft was hijacked by the Palestinian Nadir Abdallah,
flying from Beirut to Varna. The hijacker demamded that the aircraft be refuelled and
given passage to Oslo, Norway after landing at Varna Airport. All of the 150
passengers were freed at Varna, afterwards the crew continued the flight to Oslo.
 1996: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 crashed into the Indian Ocean near a beach in
the Comoros Islands after hijackers refused to allow the pilot to land and refuel the
plane. 125 passengers died and the remaining 50 passengers survived with minor
injuries. This is only the third incident in which there were survivors of a passenger
jet that had been intentionally ditched into a body of water.

1997: Two men who hijacked an Air Malta aircraft en route from Malta to Turkey
on June 9, 1997 surrendered to police at Cologne airport early on the same day and
freed without incident about 80 crew members and passengers on board.

1999: All Nippon Airways Flight 61 is hijacked by a lone man. He kills the pilot
before he is subdued.

1999-2000: Pakistan-based terrorists hijack Indian Airlines Flight 814 and divert
it to Kandahar. After a week-long stand-off India agrees to release three jailed
Pakistani terrorists in exchange for the hostages. 1 hostage was stabbed to death and
his body thrown on the tarmac as a "warning attack".

2000s

2000: Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 is hijacked on an internal flight within
Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and ended up at London Stansted Airport, where
most of the passengers claimed political asylum.

2000: Philippine Airlines Flight 812 was hijacked en route from Davao City,
Philippines to Manila. The hijacker parachuted from the aircraft while still airborne;
his body was later found.

2001: September 11 attacks, eastern USA: 19 terrorists hijacked American Airlines

flights 11 and 77, and United Airlines flights 93 and 175[citation needed]. The four heavily-
fuelled aircrafts were used as missiles to attack targets of economic, military, and
political significance in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Two of the planes,
UA175 and AA11 were crashed into New York City's twin towers of the World Trade
Center, destroying the entire complex and killing 2,998 people. In Washington, D.C.
AA77 was crashed into the Pentagon, causing massive destruction to the side of the
building facing Arlington Cemetary. Over 100 deaths took place their; an one more
attack on the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., which was averted when
passengers intervened and UA93 crashed into a field, although all those on the
aircraft perished.
This marked a landmark in hijacking: the first successful hijacking where the
intention was to destroy the aircraft and passengers, and use the fuelled aircraft as a
missile to destroy ground targets, rather than to achieve political and publicity goals.
It also marked a landmark in responses to the threat of hijacking: until then the
recommended response was for the crew to obey the hijackers' demands so as to
safeguard the passengers and buy time; after this the policy was more about
preventing access to the cockpit and pilots, and aggressive responses. From this time
air passengers worldwide were prohibited from having anything remotely like a
bladed weapon in the passenger cabin: scissors, tweezers, nailfiles, etc.

2006: Turkish Airlines Flight 1476, flying from Tirana to Istanbul, was hijacked
in Greek airspace. The aircraft, with 107 passengers and six crew on board,
 transmitted two coded hijack signals which were picked up by the Greek air force; the
flight was intercepted by military aircraft and landed safely at Brindisi, Italy.

2007: an Aeroflot Airbus A320 flying from Moscow to Geneva was hijacked by a
drunk man in Prague and there released crew and passengers after he was arrested by
the Czech Republic.

2007: an Air West Boeing 737 was hijacked over Sudan, but landed safely at
N'Djamena, Chad.

2007: an Air Mauritanie Boeing 737 flying from Nouakchott to Las Palmas with
87 passengers on board was hijacked by a man who wanted to fly to Paris, but the
plane landed in an air base near Las Palmas and the hijacker, a Moroccan, was
arrested. [8]

2007: an Atlasjet MD-80 en route from Nicosia to Istanbul was hijacked by two
Arab students, who said they were Al Qaeda operatives, one trained in Afghanistan,
and wanted to go to Tehran, Iran. The plane landed in Antalya, the passengers
escaped and the hijackers were arrested.[9]

2008: a Sun Air Boeing 737 flying from Nyala, Darfur, in Western Sudan to the
Sudanese capital, Khartoum, was hijacked shortly after takeoff. The hijackers
demanded to be taken to France where they reputedly wanted to gain asylum. The
plane initially tried to land at Cairo but was refused permission. It subsequently
touched down at Kufra, Libya. The hijackers gave themselves up almost 24 hours
after taking the plane. There were no reported casualties.

2009: a CanJet Boeing 757 preparing to depart from the Sangster International
Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica to Cuba was hijacked by a gunman who forced his
way through airport security onto the plane. Speculations arose to his motives,
including a possible demand to the crew to fly him to the United States. Most of the
passengers on the plane gave him money to buy their freedom. For the rest of the
night, negotiations took place as 6 crew members were held hostage in the flight.
Quick responses from the police force allowed them to disarm the hijacker and arrest
him. There were no casualties

Operation Entebbe
Strength:
Approximately 100 Commandos, plus air crew and support personnel 7hijackers
Unknown number of Ugandan soldiersOriginally codenamed Operation Thunderball by
the IDF (or Operation Thunderbolt in some sources), the operation was retroactively
renamed Operation Yonatan in memory of the Sayeret Matkal commander Lieutenant
Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, who was killed in action. Three hostages and 45
Ugandan soldiers were killed and five Israeli commandos were wounded. A fourth
hostage was killed by Ugandan army officers at a nearby hospital
Date 27 June 1976
Type Hijacking
Site Greek Airspace
Passengers 248
Crew 12
Injuries 10
Fatalities 4
Survivors 256
Aircraft type Airbus A300
Operator Air France
Tail number F-BVGG
Flight origin Ben Gurion International Airport
Stopover Athens (Ellinikon) International Airport
Destination Charles De Gaulle International Airport

On 27 June 1976, Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300 (Airbus A300B4-203),
registration F-BVGG (cn 019), originating from Tel Aviv, Israel, carrying 238 passengers
and a crew of 12, took off from Athens, heading for Paris. Soon after the 12:30 p.m.
takeoff, the flight was hijacked by two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO) and two Germans from the
German "Revolutionary Cells (RZ)" (Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann), who
commandeered the flight, diverting it to Benghazi, Libya. There it was held on the
ground for seven hours for refuelling, during which time a female hostage who pretended
she was pregnant and having a miscarriage was released.[2] The plane left Benghazi, and
at 3:15 it arrived at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

At Entebbe, the four hijackers were joined by four others, supported by the pro-
Palestinian forces of Uganda's President, Idi Amin. The hijackers were led by Böse (and
not, as occasionally reported, by Carlos the Jackal).[citation needed] They demanded the release
of 40 Palestinians held in Israel. and 13 other detainees imprisoned in Kenya, France,
Switzerland, and West Germany; if these demands were not met, they threatened to begin
killing hostages on 1 July 1976.

The hijackers deliberately sorted the hostages into Jew and Gentiles.[3] As they did so a
Holocaust survivor showed Böse a camp registration number tattooed on his arm, Böse
protested "I'm no Nazi! ... I am an idealist."[3] The hijackers held the passengers hostage
for a week in the transit hall of Entebbe Airport (now the old terminal). Some hostages
were released, but 105 Israelis and French Jews remained captive.[4] The hijackers
threatened to kill them if Israel did not comply with their demands.

Upon the announcement by the hijackers that the airline crew and non-Jewish passengers
would be released and put on another Air France plane that had been brought to Entebbe
for that purpose, the flight captain (Michel Bacos) told the hijackers that all passengers,
including the remaining ones, were his responsibility, and that he would not leave them
behind. Bacos' entire crew followed suit. A French nun also refused to leave, insisting
that one of the remaining hostages take her place, but she was forced into the awaiting
Air France plane by Ugandan soldiers.[5] A total of 83 Israeli and/or Jewish hostages
remained, as well as 20 others, most of whom included the crew of the Air France plane.
Nationalities
Nationality Passengers Crew Total
Belgium 4 0 4
Brazil 2 0 2
Denmark 2 0 2
France 42 12 54
Greece 25 0 25
Germany 1 0 1
Israel 92 0 92
Italy 9 0 9
Japan 1 0 1
South Korea 1 0 1
Spain 5 0 5
United Kingdom 30 0 30
United States 34 0 34
Total 248 12 260

Raid

On the 1 July deadline,[6] the Israeli government offered to negotiate with the hijackers in
order to extend the deadline to 4 July. Idi Amin asked the hijackers to extend the deadline
until 4 July, so he could take a diplomatic trip to Port Louis, Mauritius, in order to
officially hand over the chairmanship of the Organisation of African Unity to
Seewoosagur Ramgoolam.[7] This extension of the hostage deadline would prove crucial
in allowing Israeli forces enough time to get to Entebbe.

On 3 July, the Israeli cabinet approved a rescue mission,[8] Operation Entebbe, under the
command of Major General Yekutiel "Kuti" Adam; the Deputy Commander was Matan
Vilnai.[9] Brigadier General Dan Shomron was appointed to command the operation on
the ground.[10] After days of collecting intelligence and planning by Netanyahu's deputy
Moshe "Muki" Betser, four Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft flew
secretly to Entebbe Airport, by cover of night, without aid of Entebbe ground control.

Their route was over Sharm al-Sheikh, and down the international flight path over the
Red Sea, flying at a height of no more than 100 feet to avoid radar detection by Egyptian,
Sudanese, and Saudi Arabian forces. Near the south outlet of the Red Sea the C-130s
turned right and passed south of Djibouti. From there they went to a point northeast of
Nairobi, Kenya (likely across Somalia and the Ogaden area of Ethiopia), then turned west
passing through the African Rift Valley and over Lake Victoria.[11] They were followed by
two Boeing 707 jets. The first Boeing contained medical facilities and landed at Jomo
Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. The commander of the operation,
General Yekutiel Adam, was on board the second Boeing that circled over Entebbe
Airport during the raid.[10]. Oberstleutnant Ulrich Wegener, commander of the elite
German GSG 9 anti-terrorist group, was invited to participate in the Israeli hostage rescue
mission, and was rumored to be one of the 5 injured commandos on the raid.

The Israeli ground task force numbered approximately 100 personnel, and comprised the
following:

• The Ground Command & Control Element

 This small group comprised the overall ground commander, Brig. Gen. Shomron,
and the communications and support personnel.

• The Assault or "Takeover" Element

Led by Lt. Col. Netanyahu, this force was composed entirely of commandos from
Sayeret Matkal, and were given the primary task of assaulting the old terminal
and rescuing the hostages. Major Betser led one of the element's assault teams,
Matan Vilnai led another.

• The Blocking/Reinforcement or "Engagement" Element

1. Securing the area, and preventing any hostile ground force from interfering with
the C-130 Hercules aircraft and the actual rescue.
2. Destroying the squadron of MiG fighter jets on the ground, to prevent any
possible interceptions by the Ugandan Air Force.
3. Assisting in the ground refuelling of the air transports.
4. Providing protection for and assisting in the loading of the hostages aboard the
transports.

The Israeli forces landed at Entebbe an hour before midnight, with their cargo bay doors
already open. A black Mercedes with accompanying Land Rovers was taken along to give
the impression that the Israeli troops driving from the landed aircraft to the terminal
building were an escort for a returning Idi Amin, or other high-ranking official.

The Mercedes and its escort vehicles were quickly driven by the Israeli assault team
members to the airport terminal in the same fashion as Amin. However, along the way,
two Ugandan sentries, who were aware that Idi Amin had recently purchased a white
Mercedes to replace his black one, ordered this procession of vehicles to stop. The
commandos shot both of these sentries with silenced pistols. As they pulled away, an
Israeli commando in one of the Land Rovers noticed that they had failed to eliminate the
sentries and immediately killed them with a burst from his Kalashnikov. Fearing
premature alerting of associates to the hijackers, the Israeli assault team was quickly sent
into action.

The hostages were in the main hall of the airport building, directly adjacent to the
runway. The Israelis sprang from their vehicles and burst into the terminal, shouting
through a megaphone, "Stay down! Stay down! We are Israeli soldiers."[12] in both
Hebrew and English. A 19-year-old French Jew named Jean-Jacques Maimoni (who
chose to identify himself as an Israeli Jew to the hijackers even though he had a French
passport), stood up, however.[12] He was killed by the Israeli commandos, who mistook
him for a hijacker. Another hostage, Pasco Cohen, 52, manager of an Israeli medical
insurance fund, was also fatally wounded by gunfire, either from the hijackers or
accidentally by the Israeli commandos.[12] A third hostage, 56-year-old Ida Borochovitch,
a Russian Jew who had emigrated to Israel, was also killed in the crossfire.[13] At one
point, an Israeli commando called out in Hebrew, "Where are the rest of them?", referring
to the hijackers.[12] The hostages pointed to a connecting door of the airport's main hall,
into which the Israeli commandos threw several hand grenades. They then entered the
room and shot dead the three remaining hijackers, thus completing their assault.
Meanwhile, the other three C-130 Hercules had landed and unloaded armoured personnel
carriers, which were to be used for defense during the anticipated hour of refueling, for
the destruction of Ugandan jet fighters at the airport so as to prevent them from pursuing
the Israelis after their departure from Entebbe Airport, and for intelligence-gathering.

After the raid, the Israeli assault team returned to their aircraft and began loading the
hostages on board. Ugandan soldiers shot at them in the process. The Israeli commandos
returned fire, killing many Ugandan soldiers. During this brief but intense firefight, a
Ugandan sniper in the airport control tower shot and killed Commander Yonatan
Netanyahu. He was the only Israeli commando killed in the operation. The Israelis
finished the loading, loaded Netanyahu's body into one of the airplanes, and then left
Entebbe Airport.

The entire assault lasted less than 30 minutes, and all eight hijackers were killed. At least
five other Israeli commandos were wounded. Out of the 105 hostages, three were killed
and approximately 10 were wounded. A total of 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed during
the raid, and about 11 Ugandan Army Air Force MiG-17 fighter planes were destroyed on
the ground at Entebbe Airport. The rescued hostages were flown to Israel via Nairobi,
Kenya, shortly after the fighting.

Dora Bloch, a 75-year-old hostage taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, was murdered
by the Ugandan government, as were some of her doctors and nurses for apparently
trying to intervene.[13] In April 1987, Henry Kyemba, Uganda's Attorney General and
Minister of Justice at the time, told the Uganda Human Rights Commission that Bloch
had been dragged from her hospital bed and murdered by two army officers on Idi Amin's
orders. Bloch's remains were recovered near a sugar plantation 20 miles (32 km) east of
Kampala in 1979, after the Ugandan–Tanzanian War led to the end of Amin's rule.

Background

Israeli firms were often involved in building projects in Africa during the 1960s and
1970s. One reason the raid was so well-planned was that the building in which the
hostages were being held was built by Solel Boneh, an Israeli construction firm, which
still had the blueprints, and supplied them to the government of Israel. Additionally,
Mossad (Israel's intelligence service) built an accurate picture of the whereabouts of the
hostages, the number of militants. and the involvement of Ugandan troops from the
released hostages in Paris.

While planning the military operation, the Israeli army built a partial replica of the airport
terminal with the help of some Israeli civilians who had helped build it in the first place.
A very high level of secrecy was maintained, and the civilian contractors who had built
the replica were detained as "guests" of the military until the rescue was declared a
success.

According to a 5 July. 2006, Associated Press interview with raid organizer "Muki"
Betser, Mossad operatives extensively interviewed the hostages who had been released.
As a result, another source of information was a French-Jewish passenger who had been
mistakenly released with the non-Jewish hostages. Betser reports that the man had
military training and "a phenomenal memory," allowing him to give information about
the number and arms of the hostage-takers, among other useful details.
In the week prior to the raid, Israel had tried a number of political avenues to obtain the
release of the hostages. Many sources indicate that the Israeli cabinet was prepared to
release Palestinian prisoners if a military solution seemed unlikely to succeed. A retired
IDF officer, Baruch "Burka" Bar-Lev, had known Idi Amin for many years and was
considered to have a strong personal relationship with him. At the request of the cabinet
he spoke with Amin on the phone many times, attempting to obtain the release of the
hostages, without success.

Claim of Israeli involvement

According to a UK government file on the crisis, an unnamed contact within the Euro-
Arab Parliamentary Association told a British diplomat in Paris, shortly after the
hijacking, that the Israeli Secret Services and the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP), acted together to seize the plane. According to this version, the Shin
Bet helped design the operation to undermine the PLO's standing in France and its
rapprochement with the USA.

Israel denied the contact's claim about Israeli involvement, with officials in the Vice
Premier's office calling it "foolishness" and "not worthy of comment." The absence of
specific details supporting the allegation led to claims that there had been a deliberate act
of disinformation, an attempt to develop a conspiracy theory.

Aftermath

The government of Uganda later convened a session of the United Nations Security
Council to seek official condemnation of the Israeli raid, as a violation of Ugandan
sovereignty. The Security Council ultimately declined to pass any resolution on the
matter. In his address to the Council, Israeli ambassador Chaim Herzog said:

We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done
because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel's
circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the
dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are
proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people—men,
women and children—but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human
freedom.

UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim described the raid as "a serious violation of the
national sovereignty of a United Nations member state" (meaning Uganda). For refusing
to depart when given leave to do so by the hijackers, Captain Bacos was reprimanded by
his superiors at Air France and suspended from duty for a period. Idi Amin was
humiliated by the surprise raid. He believed Kenya had colluded with Israel in planning
the raid and hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda were massacred soon afterwards. But
from this time, Amin's regime began to break down. Two years later, Amin was forced
into exile in Saudi Arabia. He died in Jeddah in August 2003. In the ensuing years, Betser
and the Netanyahu brothers (Iddo and Benjamin), all Sayeret Matkal veterans, argued in
increasingly public forums about who was to blame for the unexpected early firefight
which caused Yonatan Netanyahu's death and partial loss of tactical surprise. This has
become an open wound in the close-knit Sayeret Matkal family.
Dramatisations

The incident was the subject of several films, two of which were U.S. productions with
American/British casts; a third was produced in Israel with mostly Israeli actors in the
key roles. The hijacking of Air France Flight AF139 and the subsequent rescue mission is
featured in the documentary Operation Thunderbolt: Entebbe.

Another View On ENTEBBE

What is the story of the IDF's operation to release the hostages from
Entebbe in July 1976?

On June 27, 1976 Air France flight 139 with 246 passengers travelling from Ben Gurion
Airport to Paris via Athens was hijacked by Arab terrorists who boarded during the
Athens stopover. The hijackers, armed with guns and grenades, ordered the plane to
divert to Benghazi, Libya for refueling. There one passenger, a young, pregnant worman,
was allowed to leave the plane. The plane then took off again and flew south to Entebbe,
Uganda, where it landed at 3:15 local time on the morning of June 28.

The hijacking turned out to be a collaborative effort between Dr. Wadia Hadad's Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a branch of the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), and the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Once at Entebbe, the passengers
were moved to the Old Terminal building, guarded by Ugandan soldiers and local PFLP
terrorist operatives in addition to the hijackers themselves.

As diplomatic efforts involving the French, owners of the aircraft, and the Israelis were
gearing up to work toward a release of the hostages, the IDF started to make contingency
plans. By the end of the day on June 29, a list of demands was received from the
terrorists, via Paris, calling for release of 53 convicted terrorists held in Israel, France,
Germany, Switzerland and Kenya. A second message from the terrorist hijackers set
14:00 hours, Israel time, on Thursday, July 1 as a deadline. If their demands were not
met, the terrorists threatened to blow up the plane and its passengers.

As IDF planning for a rescue operation was authorized by the Israeli government and
round-the-clock preparations began in Israel, the Israeli hostages were separated from the
others at Entebbe. Forty-seven of the non-Israeli group was released onto an Air France
plane; the French Captain and his crew from flight 139 refused to leave without all their
passengers. The released groups were interrogated on their return to Europe to gain
information about the circumstances at Entebbe; they confirmed that the Ugandans were
active partners in the hijacking.

By July 1 the Israeli plans had solidified on a rapid air assault, extraction, and withdrawal
operation. By good fortune, plans to the Old Terminal building were located at an Israeli
building contractor. However, to gain time the Israeli cabinet voted to start negotiations
with the terrorists. The PFLP extended the ultimatum to 14:00 hours on Sunday, July 4.
By the end of the day on July 1, the rescue operation was fleshed out by IDF planners and
the risky plan was deemed feasible. The Defense Minister approved the preparation of
operational orders; Brig. General Dan Shomron was appointed to command the operation
on the ground. A model of Entebbe was built to aid the planning.
A second group of 101 non-Israeli hostages arrived in Paris, leaving only Israelis and
Jews still in the terrorists' hands, 105 men, women and children. The smaller group made
it somewhat easier to plan their rescue, but also raised doubts about the sincerity of
negotiations. The terrorists were taking the position that they were not interested in
negotiation - only in total satisfaction of their demands.

The operational plan took shape: five C-130 Hercules aircraft for the 200 man assault
force, two Boeing 707s for medical and communications teams, a black Mercedes limo
plus some Land Rovers to trick the Ugandan guards. The IDF pilots practiced landing the
aircraft and operating in the dark late into the night of July 2.

On Saturday, July 3, shortly after dawn, the combat units loaded their equipment, and
drove on deserted roads to a nearby airbase, where ground crews loaded them and their
vehicles securely in the cargo space of the C-130s. IDF doctors and medical orderlies
were loaded on board the "hospital" Boeing 707. At 13:20, they were airborne,
southbound for Ophir at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula, where they refueled and then
headed for Entebbe. With the planes already in the air, the full Israeli cabinet met and
gave final approval.

Flying the long path over Africa, through stormy weather, the C-130s reached their
destination and touched down at Entebbe at 23:01, only seconds off the preplanned
schedule. The rear ramp of the plane was already open, and the vehicles were on the
ground and moving away before the Hercules rolled to a stop. A handful of paratroopers
dropped off the still-moving plane to place emergency beacons, in case the control tower
turned off the runway lights.

The Mercedes, and its escorts, took the road to the Old Terminal, moving consistent with
the appearance of a senior officer's entourage. They were confronted by two Ugandan
sentries who shouted an order to stop, but they were immediately shot by the fast moving
Israelis. The first assault team jumped from the car and ran the last 40 yards to the
walkway in front of the building, then entered and quickly ended all resistance, taking
only a few IDF and hostage casualties. A second assault team took out off-duty terrorists
and Ugandan guards. One of the few IDF casualties was Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, brother
of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fatally shot by a sniper.

The assault on the Old Terminal building was completed within three minutes after the
lead plane landed. Once all five planes were on the ground, IDF armored personnel
carriers deployed to take up positions around the airport. Infantrymen ran to secure all
access to roads to the airport and to take over New Terminal and the control tower. Heavy
fuel pumps were taken off one of the planes to refuel from Entebbe's own tanks for the
return trip.

The hostage passengers and crew of Air France 139 were evacuated onto IDF planes
within seven minutes, along with the Israeli dead and wounded. The Old Terminal
building was left deserted except for the dead bodies of the eight hijackers. As the
planeload of hostages took off, the IDF infantry destroyed Ugandan MiGs on the ground
to prevent any pursuit. The paratroops reloaded their vehicles and equipment and the last
IDF plane was airborne at 00:40, July 4.

The IDF planes were able to land at Nairobi, Kenya where arrangements had been made
at the last minute to refuel. The Kenyan's gassed up the Israeli planes like they were
normal commercial flights and soon all were airborne again on the way back to Israel.
The news beat them home. Reporters in Uganda became aware of a fire-fight at Entebbe
and filed stories to the European media. It was already a headline on Paris radio and the
BBC as the planes made their way home. By the time they reached Israel, on July 4, 1976
the country and the free world was electrified by excitement over what the IDF had done.
A few hours later, the IAF Hercules touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport,
rolled to a stop and opened its rear ramp to release its precious cargo of men, women and
children into the outstretched arms of their relatives and friends, accompanied by the
cheers of a crowd of thousands.

One hostage, Mrs. Dora Bloch, was not rescued because she had been taken to a hospital
in Kampala. She was subsequently murdered on Idi Amin’s orders.

The unexpected daring and impossible logistics made the raid a complete surprise, and a
great success. It was a setback for terrorists everywhere since it showed that a determined
nation could successfully mount counter-operations to defeat them with no gain for the
terrorists at all. The success also weakened the dictator Idi Amin by emboldening Amin's
opponents. Sabotage and resistance increased and by 1979 he was deposed.

INDIAN IC 814 HIJAKING 1999

IC-814:at-Kandahar,a-shame-story-A-Flight-814

The Chronology of Events

IA Flight 814 takes off from Kathmandu at 1615 (IST) hours on December 24, 1999
Air traffic control is reported as asserting that shots were heard on the plane.
The five armed hijackers make pilot Captain Saran divert the plane over Lucknow and
head for Lahore in Pakistan.
The Lahore airport authorities refuse to permit the aircraft to land, forcing it to head back
to Amritsar, India.
The plane lands at Amritsar where the hijackers demand that the aircraft be refueled. The
airport is sealed off.
The airport authorities send over a tanker for refueling, but due to some problem they
seek that the aircraft be brought closer to the tank.
After a 25-minute wait, the hijackers make the aircraft take off by killing a passenger, ,
Mr. Katyal and head for Lahore, with just enough fuel for the trip.
India persuades the Pakistani authorities to permit the aircraft to land.
Lahore airport is sealed off.
The aircraft nearly crash lands and is surrounded by Pakistani commandos.
It is refueled and headed for Kabul. But because of the lack of night-landing facilities
there, and later, at Kandahar, the plane is diverted towards Dubai.
It finally lands at the Al-Minhat air force base. The hijackers demand food, medicines and
a step ladder since none is available.
The UAE officials agree to negotiate if the women and children are allowed to
disembark.
The hijackers release 25 passengers, and allow the body of Mr. Katyal to be released to
the UAE authorities.

Early on December 25, 1999 morning, the flight takes off from Dubai for Afghanistan. At
0855 hours, it lands at Kandahar.
Senior Indian officials opened talks with the hijackers to secure the release of hostages.
Hijackers demand release of 35 other jailed terrorists besides Mohammad Masood Azhar
and US $200 million for the release of 154 hostages.
Later hijackers dropped their demands for a $200 million ransom and the exhumed
remains of Afghan terrorist Sajjad Afghani.
Passenger were released on December 31, 1999 after Government of India releases 3
terrorists.
January 6, 2000: Hijackers have been identified as Pakistani nationals with links to ISI,
an intelligence organization of the Pakistan Government.

IC-814 Captain becomes a celebrity in India

Al Qaeda hijacked IC-814 to Kandahar, says Osama's former guard
Islamabad | September 17, 2006
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda hijacked Indian Airlines jetliner IC-814 to Kandahar,
Afghanistan, on the Christmas eve of 1999 to secure the release of Pakistani militant
Maulana Masood Azhar.
Abu Jandal, a former guard of Osama bin Laden said this in a one and a half hour
documentary aired on Al-Jazeera Television, reports the Daily Times.
According to the guard, bin Laden welcomed Maulana Masood Azhar after his release
following negotiations between the Indian government and the hijackers, and threw a
lavish party in his honour.
"After two or three days, bin Laden invited Azhar to a lavish party, thrown in his honour,
where I was introduced to him. I was astonished to discover that Azhar and Bin Laden
already knew each other," Jandal said.
He further said that on the day the Indian Airlines jet was hijacked and force-landed at
Kandahar, he was asked to keep the heat-seeking Stinger missiles ready.
"Emergency was declared at the Kandahar Airport in 30 minutes. I was told that other
planes will also follow this one and there is a chance that the situation could deteriorate,"
he said
Devi Sharan with his daughters, Aashna, 7, and Deeksha, 10.
The hijackers, jumpy and brusque, shoved the nose of the gun to the pilot's head. Take off
in 30 seconds or die, they told him. Then they began a panicky countdown: "30, 29, 28,
27 . . ." When they reached 2, Capt. Devi Sharan opened up the power on Indian Airlines
flight 814 and took off. As the Airbus lifted into the sky at 7:49 p.m. on Christmas Eve,
any possibility that a crack Indian commando team could storm the plane and try to
rescue the 184 passengers and crew members ended. The jet was leaving Amritsar, in
India, and heading across the border into what many Indians consider enemy territory:
Pakistan.
Indian Airlines Flight 814 (abbreviated IA-814) was a flight that flew from Kathmandu,
Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport to Delhi, India's Indira Gandhi International
Airport. It was hijacked on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24, 1999, shortly after the
aircraft entered Indian airspace at about 5:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time by five Pakistani
nationals. The hijackers stabbed to death 25-year-old Rupin Katyal. Ultimately, the plane
landed in Afghanistan, where the hijackers agreed to release their hostages in exchange
for the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, and Ahmed Omar
Saeed Sheikh.

The Indian Airlines (now renamed as 'Indian') flight 814 (VT-EDW) was hijacked on the
eve of Christmas on Friday, December 24, 1999, shortly after the aircraft entered Indian
airspace at about 5:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time. The identities of the hijackers were
1. Ibrahim Athar from Bahawalpur, Pakistan
2. Shahid Akhtar Sayed from Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi, Pakistan
3. Sunny Ahmed Qazi from Defence Area, Karachi, Pakistan
4. Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim from Akhtar Colony, Karachi, Pakistan
5. Shakir from Sukkur City

Anil Sharma, senior flight steward on IC-814, later recalled that a masked, bespectacled
threatened to blow up the plane with a bomb and ordered Captain Devi Sharan to "fly
West". The hijackers wanted Captain Sharan to divert the aircraft over Lucknow and head
towards Lahore, but Pakistani authorities quickly refused permission as they were wary
of being linked with the terrorists. Also, the fuel was not sufficient. Captain Sharan told
the hijackers that they have to land in Amritsar, India
after landing at Amritsar, the flight crew were hoping that they will get some assistance
and the hijacking will end. They asked for a sniper or a sharpshooter to go along with the
browser and shoot at the tyres to disable the aircraft. But, for unknown reasons that
couldn’t happen. The local forces at Amritsar were told to wait for the National Security
Guard.
The hijackers asked for the plane to be refueled, the Indian Government agreed as it
would have given it some time to formulate some strategy. But as the refueling was
deliberately delayed by the Indian Government, after waiting for over 25 minutes, the
hijackers became suspicious and ordered the captain to fly the plane to Pakistan. When
the captain didn't comply, they threatened to kill all the passengers. They stabbed 25-year
Mr. Rupin Katyal in chest a number of times. Rupin Katyal was returning from his
honeymoon with his wife Rachna Katyal. At this stage, a helpless Captain Sharan
realized that there was no action from ATC, the Indian Government or the security forces;
"the browser was not coming in front of the aero plane and nothing was happening". He
decided to fly to Lahore without refueling.
As the plane was running very low of fuel, on Indian government's request, Pakistan
allowed the plane to be landed and refueled. Three hours after landing, the plane took off
towards Afghanistan but as none of the airports were equipped for night landings, it was
diverted to the military base Al Minhat in the United Arab Emirates. During this flight,
Mr. Rupin Katyal passed away. After landing, the hijackers were asked to release women
and children in exchange for some more fuel, food and water. Some 25 passengers were
released along with the body of Mr. Rupin Katyal.

Captain Sharan later recalled that there were "a lot of different kinds of weapons,
different colours of hand grenades" in the cockpit and "the pedestal was full of bullets.
In the early hours of Christmas morning, the battered and hijacked plane flew again with
a tired crew to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The Taliban authorities did not cooperate with the Indian authorities to secure a release of
the hostages by disallowing Indian commandos to storm the plane. They refused the
request to let Afghan commandos storm the plane, as well.
The Taliban encircled the plane with tanks and heavily armed militia. Negotiations
opened up between the Indian government and the hijackers. The government accepted
to release the following terrorists in exchange for the release of the passengers and crew
of the flight IC 814.
· Maulana Masood Azhar (Pakistani)
· Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar (Indian)
· Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (British national of Pakistani origin)
The erstwhile Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh had personally gone to Kandahar to
take charge of the situation there.
After negotiations between the India government, and the hijackers, the remaining
hostages were freed. On December 31, 1999, the freed hostages of the Indian Airlines
Flight 814 were flown back to India on a special plane. The hijackers disappeared into
Pakistan in their vehicle before releasing a Taliban official they had taken hostage

Initial demand by the hijackers

The hijackers initially demanded the release Mohammad Masood Azhar, who is currently
serving jail sentence in India for terrorist activities. Azhar is a Pakistani national and is
the General Secretary and ideologue of the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), an
organization based in Pakistan which was in October 1997 designated as a Foreign
Terrorist Organization by the United States Department of State. The HUM was re-
designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department in its latest list
released on October 8, 1999
Latest demands by the hijackers
The hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight IC – 814 have demanded the release of 35 other
jailed terrorists besides Mohammad Masood Azhar and US $200 million for the release
of 154 hostages. The hijackers have also demanded that the body of Harkat-ul-Ansar
chief in Jammu & Kashmir Sajjad Afghani be exhumed and the coffin be handed over to
them.
According to news reports, the hijackers have dropped their demands for a $200 million
ransom and the exhumed remains of Afghan terrorist Sajjad Afghani (06:30 AM EST,
December 29, 1999).

Final Solution
India released 3 terrorists for the exchange of the Indian Airlines passengers.
Summary of External Affairs Minister's comments at a press briefing - December 27,
1999.
The Government of India continues to monitor the situation.
The Government has shared with the leaders of political parties in India information on
developments in respect of the hijacking of flight IA-814. The leaders of political parties
said that since developments were taking place at a fast pace, it was for the Government
to decide on shapes should be taken.

The safety and security of the passengers and crew and, above all, the national interest of
the country remain the two main elements of India's approach. The meeting condoled the
sad and regrettable death by stabbing of Shri Rupin Katyal.
An airplane with essential materials, doctors, relief crew and a negotiating team is in the
process of leaving for Kandhar. It was our expectation that the aircraft will leave for
Kandhar within the next 2-3 hours. In the course of the last two days EAM had contacted
his counterparts in several countries including Australia, Russia, Canada, Great Britain,
USA,

Switzerland, Italy, Bangladesh and Nepal to seek their active cooperation on

humanitarian grounds.
In response to questions, EAM said the following:
The Government was aware of reports of the deadline apparently set by the hijackers.
Our direct contacts with them will enable us to know the exact nature of their demands.
The relief aircraft would have gone yesterday but for procedural difficulties not on
account of the Government of India. The cooperation we are receiving from the US
administration is totally satisfactory. EAM has been in touch with his counterpart in
Pakistan. The Pakistani reaction was that whatever they do will be within the four corners
of the law and transparent.
Armed soldiers from the Taliban Islamic militia take up positions near the hijacked
Indian Airlines plane at Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan Dec. 30.
Conclusion
After study the both events we will find different approach for the same kind of
critical situation. Israel did very hard, deterministinc, demoralizing terrorist and
lesson to other nation what we show to nation, world and terrorist. Here we need
very strong policy &Strict to that policy.
Ref

1. Wikipedia & others