IC814 The Kandahar Hijack: Former RAW Chief Recalls Receiving ‘Desperate Calls’ From Ajit Doval

IC814: The Kandahar Hijack was in hot soup owing to the code names of the hijackers. Netizens rose in uproar accusing the makers of hiding their original names. The series has now added a disclaimer regarding the name after MIB summoned Netflix's Content Head seeking an explanation regarding the content row. Amid this, one of the hostages called the controversy "needless" and recounted how the hijackers tried to calm down the tense situation on the flight.

Now, the chief of the R&AW at the time, AS Dulat, and Anand Arni, a former special secretary at the R&AW, recalled the negotiations and shared that the Taliban had no control. For the unversed, five terrorists hijacked an Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu and took it to Kandahar where they secured the release of three high-profile terrorists - Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Zargar and Omar Sheikh.

'They had a very tough time on the ground'

In an interview with The Print, AS Dulat recalled receiving a few "desperate phone calls" from Kandahar urging him to resolve the matter. Arni, who was also a part of the negotiations team in Kandahar, recounted the ups and downs during the week-long negotiations. The negotiating team was led by now-NSA Ajit Doval. "I was there at the first CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) meeting after the hijack, the following day at 10 in the morning, and I can tell you the atmosphere that morning was that sooner or later, we will have to give in,” Dulat recalled.

“The NSA, Brijesh Mishra, said, ‘I think you need to send a team of negotiators’. We decided to send two from each side, two from the IB and two from the R&AW. From the R&AW, we sent our two best experts on Pakistan , CD Sahay and Anand Arni, and from the IB there was the redoubtable Mr Doval… They had a very tough time on the ground, and Anand will describe that better, because I did get some desperate phone calls from there saying, ‘Hurry up and do something’," he continued.

Dulat added that he got a call from Ajit Doval on the morning of the 30th and said, "Please, get this through quickly, it’s very difficult staying on here, these guys are telling us get the hell out of here or we’re not responsible for what happens."

How bad things were on the ground in Kandahar?

Arni, who was part of the team, revealed that the hostages didn't get proper food. He said that the show shows hostages getting food the moment they landed, well this was not the case in reality.  "It was only on the second day that we reached that the UN started flying in greasy so-called hamburgers from Peshawar. What they contained, I don’t know. The accommodation that we had left a lot to be desired. There was always that feeling that you’re friendless in a hostile country," he added.

Talking about the team of Indian officials in Kandahar, he said that the first four days there was excitement about being there. However, when it looked like things were belly-up, one of the members of the crew reminded them that seven Iranian diplomats had been assassinated in Mazar-i-Sharif a year before.

When asked about Doval's portrayal in the show, to this, he replied, "Mr Doval was conducting the talk, and he did a fair job. He kept the discussions going; we were negotiating mainly at night, maybe till around 12. On the 29th, we thought we had an agreement, but they backtracked on the 30th.”

For the unversed, Aditya Srivastava played the role of  R&AW chief Dulat while Arni's character was played by Kumud Mishra.