From history books–Karachi bound Flight from Gawadar hijacked–not today, 23 years before

Karachi bound Flight from Gawadar hijacked–not today, 23 years before 

PIA hijacking: When Pakistan's Hyderabad became India's bhoj to deceive hijackers

Shahid Aslam

Journalist, Lahore

May 24, 2021

23 years ago, on May 24, 1998, a young police officer completed his training and was posted as the first posting Sub-Divisional Police Officer (ASP) at Pahli, Hyderabad. He was in his office on Sunday when a wireless message rang in the evening that all SDPOs and SHOs should arrive at Hyderabad airport immediately.

This is the period when India had carried out several nuclear explosions between May 11 and 13, 1998 and the relations between Pakistan and India had become very tense. It was also rumored that India could attack Pakistan to prevent a retaliatory nuclear blast.

So the first thought this young officer had was that maybe there was a situation where all of a sudden all the officers were called to the airport.

ASP Pahli Dr. Usman Anwar (who is now the DIG and is currently the Director General of the Federal Ombudsman Punjab) immediately called his wife at home and informed her that there might be a delay in returning home. Be done At the same time, he instructed that if a war broke out (according to his fears), the wife should take her youngest son to her parents immediately on the first train to Lahore with the help of an employee.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Dr Usman Anwar recalls the incident, saying that when he arrived at the airport in his official car, a good number of police, Rangers and Army officers and men were also there. Had arrived

Since he did not have a mobile phone or internet access at the time, he did not know at the time that a PIA plane had been hijacked and landed at Hyderabad airport. Arrived there to deal with the emergency situation.

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, when he reached the airport, he found out that it was a matter of hijacking the plane and the captain of the plane, Captain Uzair Khan, skillfully hijacked the PIA Fokker F-27 with the help of the airport staff. It has been set up a short distance away so that hijackers cannot see the Hyderabad Airport written on the building.

The hijackers had already been told by the captain of the plane that they had flown the plane and brought it to Bhoj Airport in the Indian state of Gujarat for refueling, after which they took them to New Delhi, the capital of India, as demanded by the hijackers. will go.

Kandahar Hijacking: How Indian Airlines Flight 814 Arrived in Kandahar and Then What Happened

Ganga hijacking: Two Kashmiri youths hijack Indian plane with toy pistol and bring it to Lahore

Dr. Usman Anwar says that the manager of Hyderabad Airport also wisely sensed the emergency message from the captain asking for landing permission and informed in the cockpit that yes it is Bhoj Airport and he is here for refueling. Can land for

During the landing of the plane in the evening, all the lights of the airport were also turned off so that the hijackers would not be alerted by reading any kind of writing that it is not India but Pakistan.

On the other hand, Akhtar Gurchani, the then SSP in charge of operations against the hijacking of the plane and the then SSP Hyderabad, told the BBC that he was invited to a function at the Hyderabad Press Club that day and at six or seven in the evening. It will be about one o'clock when they are informed that some hijackers have hijacked a plane and brought it to Hyderabad.

According to Akhtar Gurchani, he got up immediately and informed his superiors and walked towards the airport.

Akhtar Gurchani, who later became the head of the country's civil intelligence agency's intelligence bureau, recalls the incident, saying that when he arrived at the airport, he was told that an army brigadier would arrive shortly and that he would carry out the operation. Will lead.

He said that when the brigadier came some time later, he said, "Gurchani, you will see this operation until you get formal orders from the concerned corps commander's office in this regard." Thus, just a few days before the atomic bombings carried out by Pakistan on May 28, 1998, Akhtar Gurchani led this hijacking operation.

How and where hijackers hijacked the plane

According  to Dr. Usman Anwar, shortly before the hijacking, the hijackers had made a formal plan to carry out the hijacking, and according to the plan, they involved an employee of the airport security force with him. That they want to smuggle some drugs, so instead of passing their bags through a security scanner, they should catch them while boarding the plane.

The ASF officer did the same and they took a bag full of drugs inside the plane and paid a bribe of Rs. 100,000 to the officer.

According to Dr Usman Anwar, the hijackers did the same for the second time, after which the kidnappers became convinced that ASF personnel would never check their bags. Therefore, for the third time on May 24, according to the plan, they put weapons instead of drugs in the bag and without checking, the bag reached inside the plane with the help of this ASF officer.

As the plane flew from Gwadar to Karachi, it was hijacked by three hijackers, including Shah Sawar, Sabir and Shabbir.

The three hijackers were traveling under the false names of Jamal Hussain, Anwar Hussain and Ghulam Hussain and belonged to the Baloch Students Organization. The plane was carrying 33 passengers and five crew members, including the captain, Captain Uzair Khan, first officer Muhammad Faisal, airhostess Khaleda Afridi, flight attendant and flight engineer Muhammad Sajjad Chaudhry.

Dr. Usman claims that "we are 100% sure that this plan of hijacking was in fact a conspiracy of India which was an attempt to prevent Pakistan from carrying out a nuclear explosion because later the hijackers said that they did it all because They were saying that they did not want Pakistan to carry out nuclear blast in Balochistan.

Dr. Usman Anwar claimed that the hijackers also had a map of Bhoj Airport, so when they were about to cross the Indus River and land at Hyderabad Airport, they thought that the Indus River was actually the river according to the map. Bhoj is located near the airport and they are about to land in India.

Dr. Usman Anwar says that when the hijackers were talking to the captain of the plane about landing at Bhoj Airport, he had skillfully sent a message to the airport authorities through the emergency channel that the plane had been hijacked.

The hijacking was first reported to SSP Hyderabad Akhtar Gurchani and Deputy Commissioner Hyderabad Sohail Akbar Shah.

The loudspeakers of mosques in Hyderabad a ban on zan

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, the then Deputy Commissioner Hyderabad, Sohail Akbar Shah, who later became the Principal Secretary to former Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, also sensed the situation and with the help of the police, especially around the airport and Hyderabad. I am generally informed that the adhan will not be given through the loudspeaker of any mosque so that the hijackers do not know that they are in Pakistan and not in India.

"On this day in the whole of Hyderabad, perhaps in the evening, but the call to prayer of Isha was certainly not given through a speaker in any of the mosques."

The entire airport and surrounding roads were cordoned off by police, Rangers and Army youths and all traffic was stopped.

According to Dr Usman Anwar, four people including him, including Deputy Commissioner Hyderabad Sohail Akbar Shah, SSP Akhtar Gurchani and Major Amir in-charge of ISI Hyderabad, were invited to dinner by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and were given great encouragement.

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, there was no formal meeting to deal with this sudden situation, but everything went as planned by the hijackers and until the operation, the pilot, co-pilot and engineer were among the crew. Even the hostesses did not know that it was not Bhoj but an airport in Hyderabad, Pakistan.

Waiting for hijackers and ZTV

Dr. Usman Anwar further states that shortly after landing, the hijackers sent the ship's engineer out so that he could get down and inform the authorities about the demand of the hijackers that 'he was sent by Baba Jan and he We are waiting for VK to give an interview about this hijacking.

"Since the dish arrived at that time, most of the ZTV was running."

The engineer, dressed in a white PIA uniform, said the hijackers were waiting for a ZTV team to come and interview them. The engineer came and added that there are five hijackers inside the plane, they are armed, they have bombs and small arms and they have planted bombs in the plane and they will blow up the plane.

At that time the air conditioner system was off in the plane, the heat was very high and the drinking water had run out and as soon as he asked for water, Akhtar Gurchani thought that since he was not in uniform, he We have to go to give water.

Akhtar Gurchani told the BBC that he had decided to go ahead and deliver the water himself and told his ASP Dr Usman Anwar, who was in his pants shirt, "Usman will go on which They said, 'Why not?'

Akhtar Gurchani further said that before leaving, he was informed that Army commandos would come from Islamabad to Karachi and from there to Hyderabad by helicopter as there was no night landing facility at Hyderabad Airport. Therefore, they will have to confuse the hijackers as much as possible so that the commandos can reach and then carry out operations against these hijackers.

Dr. Usman Anwar says that at that time he had five hundred rupees in his pocket which he took out and put under a rock so that if the hijackers searched, nothing about Pakistan would come out of his pocket. Then we both picked up as many bottles of water as we could and went to the ship.

Dr. Usman Anwar adds that since he did not wear a watch, but before heading towards the plane, Akhtar Gorchani set his watch half an hour ahead of India's time so that even if the hijackers check it. So they should not have any doubt.

The drama of becoming a Hindu to communicate with hijackers

Akhtar Gurchani told the BBC that as the two were approaching the plane, he realized that the hijackers had been told about Bhoj Airport, so the names of the two should be the same as the names of Hindus. Dr. Usman Anwar was given the name of Assistant Manager Bhoj Airport Ram Chandra and his name was the manager of Bhoj Airport Manoj Kumar. To go

According to Dr. an Anwar, as soon as he reached the plane with the bottles, the hijackers greeted him at the gun point and set the bottles aside and a comprehensive search was carried out on both of them.

"When the hijackers became convinced that we had nothing but a walkie-talkie, they were reassured and at the same time we secretly started inspecting the ship to see how many hijackers there were and where they were." We saw three standing down and two standing at the door. '

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, after about 15 to 20 minutes, the conversation with the hijackers started and they gradually started to get away with it.

"When the hijackers repeatedly asked the ZTV team, we would also send a message over the wireless because we started calling the commandos by the code name of ZTV as well as Islamabad by the code name of New Delhi." Started shouting.

After an hour and a half, the hijackers said it was too hot. We said let us in so we can see where and how the fans can be installed.

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, he was the first person to board the plane that night. "I went and saw that there was no socket inside the plane to run the fans, on which I told the hijackers that the fans would have to be installed with the generator and if you allow us, we will call." The passengers inside, especially the children, were in a bad condition due to the heat inside, so they agreed.

Dr. Usman Anwar says, "We called for a generator with his permission. When the generator came in the car, Major Amir, in-charge of ISI's Hyderabad, became an electrician and came with me inside the plane." We installed two fans which restored the breath of the passengers and hijackers on board.

Hijackers order food and jokes from Dr. Usman Anwar

Now that the night was over, the hijackers began to say that they were hungry, so food should be arranged.

Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Sohail Akbar Shah and other police officers decided that the food to be given now should be wrapped in papers written in Hindi and not Urdu.

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, "We did not find such papers, but we do not know where and how to find a Thai dictionary or perhaps a newspaper in which the food was wrapped and brought to the airport and three or four hours passed, indicating that The teams that were out there were also working very hard.

"I had breakfast in the morning and had been at the airport since evening. Now she was gone with a headache from hunger."

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, Deputy Commissioner of Hyderabad Sohail Akbar Shah himself brought food and he became Deputy Commissioner Bhoj Gopi Chan at that time and he spoke very well there, gave him great praise, made big promises to him. The hijackers repeatedly asked where Baba Jan was, to which Sohail Akbar Shah told them that he was also coming with the team.

'Food may have arrived between one and two o'clock at night. We had become great friends by the time the food arrived, we even said goodbye to Pakistan to win their trust and I told them big jokes of Pakistanis which they used to laugh a lot.

"When the food came, I was a big cooked Hindu. I said we don't eat meat even though I was so hungry and it was a very good chicken. Eaten that they secretly eat occasionally. The hijackers then told us to eat meat, which is a good thing. He was even more satisfied after eating.

Imported cold drinks were specially arranged with the food so that no local cold drink could reach them so as not to disturb their work.

Talk to the hijackers in Hindi

Dr. Usman Anwar says that he used to watch dramas and news on ZTV with great interest and he remembered some words of these dramas but they came in handy again that day.

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, Moin Haider, who was the Governor of Sindh at that time and later became the Chief Minister of Sindh under Musharraf, came to meet him with his wife and said, “I often tell my wife to look. By watching TV, the boy learned Hindi and saved the Pakistani plane.

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, during this period he had become so friendly with a hijacker that he would lie down on the ground with a pistol in front of him and he would get in and out of the plane easily.

"Once I lay down on the ground with the leader of the hijackers and he started asking if you know the ships, so I said yes I know even though I didn't know anything. He said where is his tank. I said that you have to know what to do with the tank, to which he said that when the interview of ZTV is over, then he has to shoot at the tank which will set the plane on fire. '

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, he pointed to the back of the plane and guessed that the tank was there even though he did not know where the tank was.

"I asked him why you would not blow up the plane with a bomb, to which he replied that we did not have bombs. I then asked what powder you have and he said it was just powder and we lied about the bomb. He said he had only two or three pistols.

"As soon as he moved around a bit, I immediately told Mr. Gurchani that there was no bomb in my head. They just want to shoot down the plane. "

Operation preparation

Hijacking

,

"After nch, time was passing fast and it was going to be morning. On this occasion Akhtar Gurchani Sahib said that if it was morning and he found out that it was not Bhoj but Hyderabad then he would not leave us so we need to do something now and somehow get the women and children out. Let's go. '

According to Akhtar Gurchani, he individually asked the four men if they were ready for the operation at the moment, to which they all said they were all ready.

Sohail Akbar Shah, Akhtar Gurchani, Major Amir and Dr. Usman Anwar did their best to convince the hijackers that all their demands were being met, so now they should also let the women and children out. And of course let them sit face to face near the ship. His boss said it was not possible because there were three people in total and two were Baloch whom he had intimidated and threatened, but they were not his accomplices.

According to Dr. Usman Anwar, he found out for the first time that the hijackers were actually not five but three, with two standing at the door and one at the bottom. "By this time we also knew that there were no bombs on board, so we gestured to each other as we walked and decided to snatch the three hijackers together." Will

As soon as the hijackers obeyed him and took all the passengers out of the plane and seated them in front of the doors, then Major Amir and I immediately shouted Akhtar Gurchani's slogan Takbir and immediately stopped the two hijackers standing at the door. دبوچ لیا۔ '

"One of them fired at me, but instead of hitting me, the bullet hit one of his own comrades, injuring him."

"I easily overpowered their ringleader Shahsawar, he stumbled and fell down, he was watching me and I put my knee on his neck and called the control that we arrested the hijacker." There are. '

"Meanwhile, an air hostess was saying that she did not want to stay in India if she was to be taken to Pakistan in any way. She was told not to worry. This is Hyderabad and she is in Pakistan."

Dr Usman Anwar told the BBC: "After apprehending the hijackers, we took them to the CIA headquarters in Hyderabad where they were interrogated and the injured were treated there. An FIR was registered against him under Section 402-B of the Pakistan Penal Code. The Hyderabad anti-terrorism court also sentenced the three main accused Shah Sawar, Sabir and Shabbir and their ANF accomplice to death, but the death sentence of the ANF official was later commuted to life imprisonment. ۔The executions took place on May 28, 2015.

On the other hand, Dr. Usman Anwar himself was injured during the operation because the pilot had thrown an ax at him which he hit on the head of a hijacker but since he had grabbed it with his right hand and with his left hand The ax was used to injure not only the hijacker but also himself.

Sabir Baloch's body being brought for burial after being sentenced to death for hijacking

The then Chief Minister Sindh Liaquat Jatoi, Corps Commander Karachi Lieutenant General Afzal Janjua, IG Sindh Aftab Nabi, Chief Secretary Sindh, Home Secretary Sindh and other officials were monitoring the situation in the Hyderabad control room.

Dr. Usman Anwar recalls that when he entered the control room, his hand was injured and he was bleeding. On this occasion, Corps Commander Karachi Lieutenant General Afzal Janjua said, "I want to slot you on this bravery in Usman and he slot me in front of everyone."

Chief Minister Liaquat Jatoi congratulated him and IG Aftab Nabi nominated Akhtar Gurchani and his name for the Quaid-e-Azam Gold Medal Award which was later given to Dr Usman but the award could not be given to Akhtar Gurchani. ۔ Major Amir and Major Tariq Anis Ahmed were also honored.

Dr Usman Anwar says he arrived home the next morning at around 5-6 am with a bandage on his hand. He said: "His wife had no idea what had happened".

The story first appeared in the BBC Website here