A document reported to be from al-Qaeda has hailed the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane by Kashmiri militants as a "successful operation" from which other guerrillas can learn lessons. The plane was hijacked after it left the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, en route to New Delhi on December 24, 1999, and later landed in the Afghan city of Kandahar. After a week of tough negotiations, the government met the hijackers’ demands and released three militants from a prison in Kashmir in exchange for the passengers and crew. "The hijackers were clearly able to to lend greater prominence to their cause," the document, translated from a pro-Qaeda Arabic website Al-Palsam said. "The whole world began to deal with the Kashmir issue anew and according to a new perspective."
| Did the Kashmiris a lot of good, didn't it? That was the hijacking that sprung Masood Azhar... |
The document added that the Indian authorities were "afflicted with broken spiritedness, submissiveness and grovelling as they carried out the demands of the Mujahideen in front of the whole world."
| ... rather than having more innocents killed. It's always a bad move to give in to terrorism, and this particular hijacking illustrates it. The number of corpses which have as a result is a lot higher than the number that would have come had somebody just bombed the plane and killed everyone on it. |
It said the operation should be studied "in order to derive lessons and insights from which Mujahideen can benefit." The document said the "greatest success in the matter was the speed of decision-making and resoluteness in the event when the Indian forces delayed in supplying fuel."
| Yeah. That was when the killed the guy on his honeymoon... |
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