Look: When Sheikh Mohammed successfully negotiated release of 73 hostages 40 years ago

Forty years ago, on August 25, 1984, the whole world was watching a tense hostage drama at Dubai International Airport (DXB) involving Indian Airlines Flight 421 that was hijacked by seven pro-Khalistani insurgents.

As Khaleej Times reported, the Indian carrier was on a domestic flight from Delhi-Palam Airport to Srinagar Airport via Chandigarh, with 73 people on board, including five children and six crew members.

At Chandigarh, seven hijackers – all Sikhs aged between 22 and 30 years old – stormed into the cockpit and ordered the pilot to fly the plane to Amritsar and circle above the Golden Temple. Next, the hijackers ordered the captain to fly to Lahore to refuel, and then fly to US via Bahrain.

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But due to unstable weather, the aircraft was diverted to Karachi, and then headed for Dubai. UAE authorities initially refused permission to land. DXB was closed for one-and-a-half hours from 3am (August 25, 1984) and six flights were diverted to other destinations.

Khaleej Times’ K.P. Nayar reported the Indian airliner circled overhead for about two hours. At 4.30am, a frantic captain informed the control tower that he had very little fuel and warned that he would make a water landing.

Colonel Dahi Khalfan Tamim, then commander of Dubai Police, said local authorities were also worried about the plane’s fuel position and allowed it to land shortly after 5am “because of their concern for the passengers.”

One hour after landing, the aircraft contacted the control tower seeking information about the airport. Meanwhile, then Indian Ambassador Ishrat Aziz, consul-general P.L. Goyal, and other Indian diplomats rushed to the airport. Then India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, A.A. Rahim, who was on his way from Bucharest to Doha, postponed his trip to Qatar to make himself available for consultations.

10-hour negotiation

But little headway was made at the airport until then UAE Defence Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum joined the negotiations at 8am.

Negotiations during the next 10 hours centred around the hijackers’ demand to be flown to the US. American diplomats flitted in and out of the airport, but then US consul David Stockwell told reporters his presence had nothing to do with the hijackers’ demand for asylum in his country.

The then Dubai Police chief said the hijackers told Sheikh Mohammed that they wanted safe passage to the US. But the Defence Minister answered that this was not his problem. “It is for you and the US authorities to decide,” he made clear to hijackers.

At around 3pm, the hijackers asked to get out of Dubai and head for Istanbul, an attempt that was frustrated by Dubai’s refusal to refuel the plane.

Sheikh Mohammed tried to reason with the hijackers by offering to keep them in the country until US would consider their request for asylum. After another round of shaky negotiations, as dusk approached, the hijackers accepted Sheikh Mohammed’s call to release the passengers on humanitarian grounds.

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