Twelve pro-Khalistan hijackers of the Indian Airlines Boeing-737 surrendered to authorities in the United Arab Emirates on the evening of August 25, 1984, and released all 68 passengers and six crew members unharmed, about 38 hours after they had seized the aircraft over Pathankot.
Indian Airlines flight steward DK Mehta meets his family at Palam Airport after release from the hijacked flight. (KK Chawla/HT Archive)
The released hostages are expected back in the Capital early morning. Seven hostages, including five women and an infant, freed at Lahore and Karachi, have already arrived in Delhi.
The hijackers were taken into custody by the local authorities and whisked away.
The welcome development followed nearly eight hours of non-stop negotiations between the hijackers and leaders of the UAE government led by defence minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who were assisted by Indian Ambassador Isharat Aziz, and Captain BK Bhasin, director of flight safety of the Indian Airlines.
India’s minister of state for external affairs, who was in Dubai while returning home from Rumania, also joined the talks. During the negotiations, which appeared to be on the verge of collapse on several occasions, the hijackers stuck to their demands, including safe passage to the United States and assurance that the UAE government would respect its promises.
The UAE authorities, in consultation with other concerned parties, is understood to have promised a seven-day asylum to the pro-Khalistani Sikh hijackers before their departure to the United States.
The passengers were allowed to leave the aircraft soon after the hijackers and the UAE government came to a workable understanding.
The first a batch of 25 passengers came out of the Boeing and were almost immediately followed by the remaining passengers and members of the crew.
The released hostages were taken in two airport authority buses to the air-conditioned international transit lounge for rest and refreshments.
The Delhi-Chandigarh-Srinagar plane, which was seized by 12 kirpan-wielding Sikh extremists soon after it left Chandigarh, was taken to Lahore, where it was refuelled after nine-and-a-half hours. The hijackers then forced it to fly to the Gulf via Karachi. At Karachi, it was again given jet fuel.
The Dubai airport authorities switched off the runway lights and refused contact and landing permission. The plane hovered over the Dubai airport for 40 minutes before it landed on the darkened runway with fuel running low.
After landing. the plane was cordoned off by security personnel at an isolated spot on the airport.
An Indian Airlines relief aircraft carrying senior officials of the government of India and Indian Airlines including Captain Bhasin, also landed at Dubai airport within minutes of the landing of the hijacked aircraft.
New Delhi was constantly in touch with Dubai and a special committee functioning under the Cabinet kept reviewing the minute-to-minute changing situation.
This was the second hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft in seven weeks. On July 5, an Indian Airlines airbus on a Srinagar-Delhi flight was hijacked to Lahore, where pro-Khalistan hijackers released all passengers unharmed.
The Boeing, initially carrying 122 passengers, was on a Delhi-Srinagar hopping flight via Chandigarh and Jammu. Sixty-seven passengers had disembarked at Chandigarh and 31 joined the flight for Jammu and Srinagar. The plane was hijacked minutes after it took off from Chandigarh.
Some of the hijackers were believed to have boarded the plane at Chandigarh as four passengers had given fake addresses.
The hijackers allowed five passengers, including a three-member family, to leave the aircraft at Lahore and two women, holding British passports, at Karachi.
It was the second hijacking experience for Capt VK Mehta and the third for steward DK Mehta.
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