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-thescenes 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.