Hijackers threatened to kill, also cracked jokes

New Delhi, Dec. 31. The hijackers threatened the passengers with death sometimes and at times cracked jokes. As the ordeal ended for the 155 passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane, some of them, exhausted from the mental and physical trauma, reminisced the agonising eight days in captivity.

"The hijackers were inhuman and kept on frightening us. Every half an hour they said your Government is not concerned about you and they are not doing any thing for you. You will be killed," said Ashok Chawla. But the last day was the worst as the hijackers intensified their threats and death loomed large in the aircraft.

"They hardened their stand and threatened us saying we are going to blow up the plane. We have fitted a bomb in it," said Rajinder Arora. But there was another side which surfaced rarely. "They tried to entertain us by telling jokes, singing and laughing at times but in a subdued atmosphere," Nethani, another passenger, said.

"But the entertainment was always short-lived and most of the times they threatened us," he said. "We feared death everyday and there was intense pressure on the last day. We were afraid as they threatened to blow up the plane," he said.

Puja Kataria was gifted a shawl by the hijackers on her birthday on December 27.

``I'd have preferred death''

"I would have preferred death than seeing India releasing militants in exchange for us," lamented a 60-year-old passenger of the hijacked airbus, Guru Krishnanad Bhat of Garhwal. Krishnanand with flowing beard, who returned home tonight after the hostages were released at Kandahar, was highly critical of the Government's decision to release militants.

"Government has not done something good. I would have preferred death for the country," he said.

Another passenger Chander Chabra said that they were kept blindfolded for 28 hours and some of them were asked to remove the cloth when the plane landed at Kandahar. Daman Kumar Soni said initially only two of the five hijackers had pistols and two hand bombs but all of them had pistols in their hands after the plane landed at Kandahar.

Both Chabra and Soni said the captors' behaviour was "very rude" and they were "whimsical" in providing food and water to them.

Keshav Kandon in his late twenties broke down when he met his family members at the airport. Another passenger Rajiv Ahuja said the way the Afghan authorities were talking to the hijackers, it appeared that they knew each other.

"Kandahari roti with chicken inside" was served plane during its stay on the Tarmac of the Kandahar airport, a freed hostage said tonight. "But I could not enjoy it as I am a vegetarian," Nethani, a passenger of the fateful IC-814, told reporters at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Though the fear of death was always present, there were lighter moments too when the hijackers cracked jokes with the hostages and even asked them to sing, he said. "They tried to entertain us by telling jokes, singing and laughing at times but in a subdued atmosphere," Nethani said. "But the entertainment was always short-lived and most of the times they threatened us," he said.

He said the last day was the worst as the hijackers threatened to kill us. "We feared death everyday and there was intense pressure on the last day. We were afraid as they threatened to blow up the plane."

"I am tired but relaxed", says pilot

Pilot of the hijacked airbus D Saran today said he was tired but delighted over the release of passengers by the captors at Kandahar. Saran, who returned here after a week-long captivity along with 153 hostages, told reporters "I am tired but relaxed that my passengers have come back home safely."

He was under tremendous pressure and all the time he was worried about the safety of passengers, Saran said.

- PTI, UNI

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