The motive for the hijacking appears to have been to secure the release of Islamist figures held in prison in India . The hostage crisis lasted for seven days and ended after India agreed to release three militants – Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar , Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh , and Mulana Masood Azhar . These militants have since been implicated in other terrorist actions , such as the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl , 2008 Mumbai terror attacks . The hijacking has been seen as one of the millennium attack plots in late December 1999 and early January 2000 by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists
2008 Mumbai terror attacks
2008 Mumbai attacks
Indian Airlines Flight 814