May 08, Kathmandu- Twenty-five years ago, in 1999, an Air India flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi, India, never made it to New Delhi. Flight number IC-814 was hijacked by terrorists within 15 minutes of taking off.

The hijackers flew the plane to Kandahar, Afghanistan, via Amritsar, India, Lahore, Pakistan, and Dubai.

India had to release Masood Azhar, the notorious terrorist leader of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, who was in its prison, in exchange for the ransom of the plane carrying 187 people, including 8 Nepalis. At that time, the hijackers had killed one person on the plane.

International media outlets have reported that 10 members of Masood Azhar's family were killed in an Indian airstrike on Wednesday in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack on April 22, as part of India's 'Operation Sindoor'.

Indian media outlets are reporting that the mastermind of the hijacking, Abdul Rauf Azhar, was seriously injured in an Indian drone strike. Ten members of Rauf's family have been killed in the Indian airstrike on Wednesday.

Rauf kidnapped and murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Rauf's group released a video of the journalist's murder.

Masood Azhar, who was released from Indian prison after the plane hijacking, formed a terrorist organization called 'JeS-e-Mohammed'. India has concluded that Masood's 'JeS-e-Mohammed' was also involved in the attack on the Indian Parliament House in 2001, the terrorist attacks in Pathankot in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019.

This is why India claims to be targeting the bases of 'JeS-e-Mohammed' terrorists during 'Operation Sindoor'. The main target of this attack is Jaish-e-Mohammed and its chief Masood Azhar.

Masood Azhar is the founder of the terrorist organizations Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

The then Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh himself had reached Kandahar to retrieve the plane and passengers hijacked by Masood Azhar's brother Rauf. After the hijacking of this plane, India started to increase the security of its planes at Nepal's airports. This is why even today, India conducts a separate security check before boarding a plane after passing all the security checks at the airport.