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.