After the incident, Indian Airlines suspended all flights to and from Kathmandu. The airline resumed its Kathmandu services after five months on 1 June 2000 under the same flight numbers, after Nepal assured India of full security at Kathmandu's airport. Nepal also agreed to the installation of an additional
X-ray machine and a final screening of passengers by Indian security personnel at the airport. In January 2000, the
security of Indian airports was handed over to the
Central Industrial Security Force. The hijacked aircraft was returned to Indian Airlines and was scrapped in December 2003.
Investigation and trial On 29 December, Indian intelligence intercepted a phone call from Pakistan that directed a
Mumbai resident Abdul Latif Momin to contact a news agency in
London and inform that the hijackers would blow the aircraft if their demands were not met. Amongst the ten charged, the seven Pakistani citizens, five hijackers and Iqbal and Rehan, could not be arrested as they were in Pakistan. While the governments of Nepal and UAE helped with the subsequent investigation, the government of Pakistan refused to cooperate on the same. During the course of the investigation, arrest warrants for the Pakistani nationals, were forwarded to the Pakistani government by the CBI for their extradition to India. Though the CBI also sought the help of
Interpol and got
red corner notices issued against the seven, none of them were brought to trial. The hijacked aircraft became the main piece of evidence involved in the subsequent criminal investigation and subsequently a model of the plane was created for the legal proceedings. The CBI later moved the
Punjab and Haryana High Court demanding the
death penalty for Latif. The CBI later approached the
Supreme Court of India against the decision. Meanwhile, Latif's application for parole was rejected in 2015. On 10 July 2020, Latif along with 18 others including an employee of the passport office, was acquitted by a sessions court in Mumbai on charges relating to the fabrication of passports in connection with the hijacking incident. This did not affect his extant life sentence. Media reports also criticised the government officials for not informing the Indian prime minister about the incident for more than an hour after the hijacking had begun. According to a report in
Firstpost, then RAW chief Dulat had revealed that Shashi Bhushan Singh Tomar, a RAW officer, was aboard the plane during the hijacking. It further opined that a proposal to send the NSG was apparently sabotaged by then
secretary to the Indian prime minister N. K. Singh, whose sister was married to Tomar. According to former RAW officer R. K. Yadav, Tomar was alerted by a RAW operative in Kathmandu of plans by Pakistan-based terrorists to hijack an Indian plane. However, Tomar rebuked him and told him not to spread rumors. The report further stated that somehow Tomar ended up on the same plane which was hijacked and became the cause of failure of the operation.
International reaction Al-Qaeda led by
Osama bin Laden provided organisational support for the hijacking and the incident was a part of the
millennium attack plots in late 1999 and early 2000 by Al-Qaeda linked terrorists. The
Government of the United States released a press release condemning the hijacking incident and called for the release of hostages. Though the United States had started engaging against the Al-Qaeda after the
bombings of American embassies in Africa in 1998, it actively engaged against the Taliban only after the
September 11 attacks in 2001. India had actively opposed the Taliban regime ever since it gained power in Afghanistan in 1996 as they were suspected to be involved in training militants for attacks in
Indian Kashmir region. Though Taliban had publicly indicated the displeasure at the hijacking, it did not actively help India and shared some similar interests with the ISI. It was a set back to the Indian government as it was forced to directly negotiate with the Taliban, which it had not recognised previously. During the subsequent
US invasion of Afghanistan, the Indian government provided intelligence to the US on the locations of training camps of Islamic militants in Afghanistan.
Actions of released prisoners The three released terrorists and the hijackers have since been implicated in other terrorist incidents such as the
2001 Indian Parliament attack, 2002 kidnapping and murder of American journalist
Daniel Pearl,
2008 Mumbai attacks,
2016 Pathankot attack and the
2019 Pulwama attack. Azhar later founded
Jaish-e-Muhammed in 2000, which gained notoriety for its alleged role in the various attacks that led to the death of hundreds of Indian civilians and armed forces personnel. Sheikh went on to join Azhar at JeM in 2000 after the release. He was later arrested in 2002 by Pakistani authorities for the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl. He also played a significant role in planning the September 2001 attacks in the United States. Since his release, Zargar has played an active role in training Islamic militants in
Pakistan administrated Kashmir.
Status of hijackers Amjad Farooqi, who was earlier involved in the 1995 kidnapping of Western tourists in Kashmir by
Al-Faran, was also involved in the hijacking under the alias Mansur Hasnain. On 1 March 2022, one of the hijackers, Zahoor Mistry, was killed by unidentified gunmen in a drive-by shooting in
Karachi, Pakistan. He was responsible for the murder of Rupin Katyal during the hijacking. Indian media reported that
Abdul Rauf Azhar, one of the accused and alleged mastermind behind the hijacking and Mohammad Yusuf Azhar, another named suspect in the hijacking, were allegedly killed in an airstrike by the
Indian Air Force in
Bahawalpur, Pakistan, as a part of
Operation Sindoor on 7 May 2025. However, while international media sources acknowledged an attack on an
Islamic seminary near Bahawalpur, there was no confirmation on whether Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar were present during the strike, or their whereabouts after the attack, == In popular culture ==