On 27 December after two days of internal discussions, the Indian Government sent a team of negotiators headed by Vivek Katju from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which also included officials Ajit Doval and C.D.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged ten people in relation to the case (with whereabouts unknown for seven including the five hijackers), of whom only two were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

[2][3] Per the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the five perpetrators were later identified as Pakistani nationals Ibrahim Athar (from Bahawalpur), Shahid Akhtar Sayeed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Mistry (all three from Karachi) and Shakir (from Sukkur).

It reunited with HuI in 1993 to form Harkat-ul-Ansar, but after it was declared a global terrorist organisation by the United States in 1997, it changed its name back to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

As chief steward Anil Sharma completed serving the pilots their drinks, a man wearing a mask and brandishing both a revolver and a grenade accosted him and demanded access to the cockpit.

[10][11] The Crisis Management Group (CMG) of the Indian Government led by Union Secretary Prabhat Kumar was not convened immediately, and information concerning the hijacking was not communicated at that time to the Intelligence Bureau or the Research and Analysis Wing.

[4][13] Passengers recounted that the hijackers ordered the crew to take away the food that had been served, separated the men from the women and children, blindfolded them and threatened them with explosives if they did not cooperate.

He implored the ATC to reach out to Pakistan, as the hijackers did not want to land in India and had already threatened to execute ten hostages if their demands were not met.

[9][14] Later accounts indicated that the hijackers, who were upset by the delay in refueling, stabbed passengers Satnam Singh and Rupin Katyal with a knife, causing several wounds.

[15][12] The captain made contact with the ATC four times, informing them that the hijackers were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and had begun killing hostages, and requested them to refuel the plane as fast as possible to prevent any additional deaths.

[14] Then National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra later revealed that a Government had asked for a sniper to be hidden in the bowser, who could shoot if required to disable the plane.

[13] Later, it was revealed that this approach caused the hijackers to suspect that the refueling process would prevent their departure, and they ordered Captain Sharan to take off immediately, resulting in the plane narrowly avoiding hitting the fuel tanker on the runway.

[14] Eyewitness accounts later revealed that five passengers had been placed in seats towards the front with their hands bound, and the hijackers threatened that more hostages would be executed if the plane did not take off immediately.

[4] The Indian officials reached out to Pakistan for confirmation of reports that passengers on board had been killed, but received no response from the Pakistani authorities.

[3][4][18] The released passengers, including Satnam Singh, who had also been attacked by the hijackers in Amritsar, and the body of Katyal were later flown to India on a special relief plane on December 25.

Captain Sharan later opined that he could have chosen to crash the aircraft to prevent it from taking off, but it presented a fire risk as the plane was full of fuel and he could not have done it without the explicit permission of the authorities.

On December 27, the Indian Government sent a team of negotiators headed by Vivek Katju, Joint-Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, along with officials Ajit Doval and C.D.

On the same day, the hijackers made three demands which included the release of 36 prisoners lodged in various Indian jails, the return of the body of HuM founder Sajjad Afghani and US$200 million in cash.

Abdullah was opposed to releasing the prisoners, warning Dulat of the long-term consequences, but eventually agreed to the demands of the Indian Government.

However, instead of arresting the hijackers and the three prisoners who had been handed over to them, the Taliban authorities gave them ten hours to leave the country and drove them to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The phone call directed Latif to contact a news agency in London and inform that the hijackers would blow the aircraft if their demands are not met.

[54] The incident was seen as a failure of then BJP led Government under Vajpayee, with Ajit Doval later saying that India would have had a stronger negotiating hand if the aircraft had not been allowed to leave Indian territory.

A message from the Kandahar ATC was circulated to the public which stated that the plane was being regularly cleaned, and that the passengers were being provided with food, water, and entertainment.

It was opined that a proposal to send the NSG was apparently sabotaged by then secretary to the Indian Prime Minister N. K. Singh, whose sister was married to Tomar.

[13][58][16] In a report to the Indian Parliament on 1 March 2000, the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh stated that the Government was not initially aware that the aircraft would land at Amritsar and there was limited information about the number of perpetrators and the nature of weapons.

[4] Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden provided organisational support for the hijacking and the incident was seen as a part of the millennium attack plots in late 1999 and early 2000 by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.

He criticised that the United States spent millions in Pakistan in the name of fighting terrorism, but the country did not cooperate in taking action against the perpetrators.

[65] Doval, who was part of the negotiating team, described the whole incident as a diplomatic failure due to the Government's inability to force the United States and the UAE to help secure a quick release of the passengers.

[66] India had actively opposed the Taliban regime ever since it gained power in Afghanistan in 1996 as they were suspected to be involved in training militants for attacks in Indian Kashmir region.

[69] Azhar later founded Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) in 2000, which gained notoriety for its alleged role in the various attacks, which led to the death of hundreds of civilians and armed forces personnel.