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From hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 to Moscow Theatre siege: 5 hostage crises from the past

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More than twelve hours in, the standoff in the crisis situation in Martin Place, Sydney continued, with atleast one gunman having taken customers and employees of a cafe as hostage. Under the light of this grim incident, we take a look at a few other hostage situations in the past and how they were handled. 

Indian Airlines Flight 814

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.

Akshardham Temple Attacks

The Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, Gujarat was attacked on September 24, 2002 by two militants armed with automated guns and hand grenades. The incident claimed the lives of 33 people and wounded other 80 hostages. The crisis ended after two days when National Security Guard intervened and ended the siege by killing both the attackers. However, in 2014, the Supreme Court slammed the Gujarat Police for the incompetence with which it investigated the case and acquitted all the six accused, including three who were sentenced to death by a lower court.

Moscow Theatre Siege

On October 23, 2002, 40 to 50 armed Chechen rebels attacked the crowded Dubrovka Theatre, taking 850 people hostage and demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. After a two-and-a-half day siege and the execution of two female hostages, Russia pumped in an undisclosed gas in the theatre to subdue the rebels and raided it, killing all the 40 attackers. However, 130 hostages also died because of an adverse reaction to the gas, which was widely condemned. 

26/11 Mumbai Attacks

Members of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out a series of shootings and bombings across several locations in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. The crisis lasted for four days, killing approximately 164 people and wounding over 300. On November 29, 2011 the National Security Guard conducted Operation Black Tornado, bringing an end to the crisis by killing all the attackers with the exception of Ajmal Kasab who was captured alive. Kasab was subsequently sentenced to death and hanged on 21 November 2012.

Westgate shopping mall attack

The Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya was attacked by unidentified gunmen on September 21, 2013. The hostage crisis lasted 3 days and resulted in the death of 67 people, including 4 attackers. Over 170 were wounded in the mass shooting in the mall. Islamist group al-Shabab later claimed responsibility for the incident, branding it as action against Kenya's military deployment in Somalia.

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