Airlines Deals

India had paid USD 200 million in ransom to the Kandahar hijackers of the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 in 1999, said a senior Congress leader.

In a new twist to the Kandahar controversy, Congress leader R K Anand alleged that the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had “carried more than USD 200 million to the hijackers of the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 in 1999 under international pressure,” a leading English daily, The Statesman, reported here on Thursday.

Anand charged that the money had come from the “international community” via Switzerland because Swiss “currency king” Robert Giori was among the 180 passengers held hostage by the hijackers for one week.

“There was pressure from the US and Switzerland to secure Giori’s release for any amount of money,” said Anand.

However, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) rejected Anand’s charges.

The Kandhar controversy, which has refused to die down, was in the headlines of the media a month ago when on June 15 a prime accused in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar in 1999 told a special court in Patiala, a city in Punjab state, that the entire drama was planned by the Indian government.

Deposing before the designated court, Yusuf Nepali said the entire hijacking drama was fabricated by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Union Home Minister L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.

Nepali, who allegedly assisted the hijackers, told the court that it was an attempt by the government to get rid of three terrorists of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

An Indian Airlines (Flight No IC-814) aircraft flying from Kathmandu to New Delhi on December 24, 1999 with more than 180 persons was hijacked and made landings in India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates before being taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The hijack drama ended on December 31 after the release of three jailed terrorists — Mohammad Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Sayed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar — by the Indian government.

India released the three jailed terrorists and flew them to Afghanistan, where they were exchanged for 180 hostages aboard the Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 that was hijacked on December 24, 1999.

One passenger, Rupen Katiyal, was stabbed to death by the hijackers.