Hijack victim on verdict: 9 years ago, each day seemed like a year

New Delhi: They were frightened then — when they had breathlessly counted those minutes of uncertainty aboard Indian Airlines' hijacked flight IC-814, stationed in Kandahar.
Nine years on, when a special Patiala court on Tuesday held three guilty of the hijacking, many passengers of IC-814 hold those eight days of captivity as a watershed event in their lives, the memories of which have at once strengthened them as human beings, forged closer ties with family and even with fellow passengers scattered all across India.
The importance of Tuesday had slipped Delhi-based surgeon Dr Sanjeev Chibber's mind. "I didn't know it was judgment day today. But nine years ago, each day had seemed like a year because no news of what was going on trickled down to us," he said. Six members of Chibber's family were on that flight.
While Chibber uses the events as an interesting anecdote for curious patients, his brother-in-law Arun Naithani, who was on board the plane, said, "I remember every moment on that plane. Me and my wife had spent long hours talking to our children about death. It seems so surreal now because we had almost come to believe in the possibility of death. But we have moved on and become stronger."
Sixty-year-old Naithani now lives in Dehradun. He said his daughter Kanika, who was also on that flight, had got married recently.
Naithani remembers his abductors as "courteous" and "friendly". He added the hijackers were thorough professionals but slightly shaky. "They stabbed Rupin Katyal out of nervousness," he said.
06/02/08 Aanchal Bansal/Expressindia.com

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India Domestic Feb 2008, Foreign Feb 2008, NACIL Feb 2008, Safety Feb 2008