The story of the hijack begins in July 1998 when Maulana’s brother-in-law Yusuf Azhar first contacted Abdul Latif to start working on freeing Maulana. After a failed jailbreak attempt in June 1999, a hijack conspiracy started shaping up.

In first week of September 1999, the five hijackers—Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Shahid Sayeed Akhtar, Zahoor Ibhrahim Mistri and Shakir—met at a rented flat in Dhaka’s Subzi Mandi area. Abdul Latif and Abdul Rauf were also present.

Athar, who had been working on the plan in Kathmandu for over a year, told the others that the Indian Airlines flight could be easily hijacked from Kathmandu.

“The Indian passengers only needed an identity card or driving license,” Athar told the other conspirators. It was decided that the plane would be hijacked and taken to Afganistan. The conspirators decided that if the Indian Government did not concede to their demand for the Maulana’s release, the plane would be blown off and the hijackers kill themselves.

Athar told Latif to go back to India and arrange documents to pass off the hijackers as Indian citizens. Pakistan national Abdul Rauf was the key financer of the project. For the next two months, Latif worked overtime to secure documents for every person involved. In the last week of October 1999, two of the conspirators, Shahid Sayeed Akhtar and Yusuf Nepali, arranged for three grenades and three revolvers from Kalimpong with the help of Dilip Kumar Bhujel.

On December 13, all conspirators met again at the Kathmandu Zoo as mastermind Athar gave finishing touches to the plan. It was decided that Athar would enter the airport with hand grenades and revolvers. As soon as he passes the security check, he would give a signal to Sunny Ahmed Qazi (Burger) and Shakir (Shankar) to enter the airport. Latif purchases business class tickets for the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Delhi for himself as well as Athar and Qazi, who have assumed the names of A A Shaikh and S A Qazi. For the other three—Shahid Sayeed Akhtar (doctor), Zahoor Ibrahim Mistri (Bhola) and Shakir (Shankar)—he buys executive class tickets.

Four days later, Latif flew back to Delhi and reached Mumbai by train. At noon on December 24, Latif gets a call from Sunny Ahmed Qazi that Athar had managed to pass through the metal detector inside the airport and that others were leaving the hotel for the airport. Four hours later, at 4.54 pm, Varanasi ATC received a call that IC-814 has been hijacked.