The Indian Airlines flight IC 814 was bound to land in New Delhi from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999 when Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based Islamic extremist group hijacked the plane. The plane was taken to various places before finally landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the 176 passengers were held hostage. The crisis played out for eight days, until the Indian government agreed to release militants Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar. These militants have since been implicated in other terrorist actions, such as 9/11, the kidnap and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl and the Mumbai terror attacks.