Examining the Terrorist Hijackings Carried out the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran) in Iran

352
15 February 2023

Hijacking is considered an organized crime because usually it is carried out with a predetermined plan, financial support, employing a group of people, and so on.

Hijacking has several stages from hatching a plot and recruiting the people to carry out the plan to bring the required equipment into the aircraft – such as weapons – passing through the gates to the terminal and entering the airplane, using weapons inside the plane for hijacking, taking control of the communication networks and spreading the news of hijacking, etc. Most of these steps are taken on the ground and off the plane.

Most hijackings that took place in Iran had been committed by hijackers or groups with a Marxist orientation. In the meantime, we cannot ignore the role of the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran). According to historical documents, hijacking had been one of the most important tools used by this terrorist group against the Islamic Republic of Iran. This method has been used in two forms.

First, conducting a terrorist operation and hijacking an aircraft with the help of some of the passengers. In the second method, the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran) makes contact with the Iranian pilots dissatisfied with the government thereby bribing, threatening or making various promises to them so that the pilot would hijack his aircraft – airplane or helicopter – and land on the predetermined destination. For the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran), the second method of hijacking, which is carried out with the cooperation of the pilot, is more effective in terms of propaganda. The report published by the U.S. National Defence Research Institute on the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran) describes this Organization as having the following characteristics: authoritarian leadership, ideological exploitation and isolation, employing immoral methods, emotional isolation, putting collective pressure on a severe and humiliating way, recruiting people by deception, forced labour and sleep deprivation, physical abuse, imprisonment and so on. These persecutions and bad characteristics lead us to conclude that the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran) is managed based on a sectarian structure. A sect that has survived relying on violence, terror and intimidation. Therefore, such a view can explain the reason for the act of hijacking carried out by the members of the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran).

Today, even ordinary people consider hijacking a terrorist act. However, the hijackers of the 1970s were considered heroes by many people in Third World countries.

In the years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the act of hijacking in Iran entered a new stage. In the meantime, as far as the issue of hijacking in Iran is concerned, 1984 was a challenging year. On June 16, 1984, a Fokker F27 Friendship with 8 passengers on board was hijacked by four Iranian hijackers. Afterward, the plane, which made a stop in Bahrain to refuel, landed at Egypt airport.

The hijackers sought political asylum from the Egyptian government, but after a two-day stay in Egypt and receiving a negative response to their request from the government, they flew to France and landed at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport in the southern part of the country. Four people surrendered to the French police and sought political asylum from the French government. The other four passengers of the plane demanded to return to Tehran. Following this issue, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Chargé d’Affaires of the French Embassy in Tehran and submitted a note of protest to him, strongly protesting against this illegal action of the French government. This note, while referring to several cases of hijackings of Iranian airplanes and forcing them to land in French airports, the French Socialist government granting asylum to hijackers as well as emphasizing that France has endangered the world public safety by providing a safe haven for terrorist organizations and hijackers, demanded the French government to condemn the recent hijacking attempt, return the hijacked plane to Iran and extradite the hijackers under the extradition treaty between the two countries; however, the French government granted temporary asylum to four pilots, and on June 24, the hijacked plane, along with four passengers, flew to Tehran. Earlier, on June 21, 1984, the Islamic Republic of Iran had objected to the French government, which had turned its country into a landing site for hijacked planes, demanding the extradition of the hijackers of Iran Air Fokker 27.

On Tuesday, June 26, 1984, two hijackers hijacked an Iran Air Boeing 727 demanding that the plane should go to Iraq. There were 136 passengers and crew in the airplane. Their request was accepted. According to the documents available, on June 26, 1984, at 2:10 p.m. the air traffic controllers of Shiraz airport informed the SOC (the regional Air Defence Command and Operations Centre) that as the pilot confirmed, Iran Air 415 Tehran-Bushehr flight has been hijacked in the southwest of Shiraz. The officials of the Air Defence Force who were in the ADOC (Air Defence Command and Operations Centre), in addition to these two air bases, ordered the Ninth Air Base to send a fighter aircraft despite the bad weather of Bushehr and Isfahan. Therefore, the Bushehr Radar operator was immediately ordered the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet which was undergoing aerial refuelling to stop refuelling and fly towards the hijacked plane. Bushehr Radar operator and F-14 Tomcat pilot did their best.

When the hijacked plane passed the coasts near Kangan, the F-14 Tomcat reached a point where its distance from the plane was only10 miles. After leaving Iran’s airspace, the hijacked plane, with the help of two Saudi fighter jets, flew towards one of the airports in Saudi Arabia. On the same day, at 1 p.m., 2 hijackers forced the Iran Air 727 pilot who had taken off from Tehran and was going to land on Bushehr, to land in Qatar. 138 passengers and crew were on board. After refuelling and releasing all passengers in Qatar, the hijackers flew to Egypt and landed at Cairo’s airport. They demanded political asylum from the Egyptian government, but their request was rejected. Finally, on June 28, 1984, at 3 a.m. the plane returned to Tehran. The Iraqi government also granted political asylum to the hijackers.

On the night of Monday, August 7, 1984, at 10:23 p.m., which coincided with the arrival days of Iranian pilgrims from Hajj, the Tehran-Shiraz Airbus plane with 304 passengers was hijacked by two hijackers. The next day, at 02:35 a.m., the plane landed at Bahrain airport. The hijacked plane left Bahrain for Cairo at 04:35 a.m. after being refuelled. Eventually, the hijacked plane left for Rome, where the hijackers surrendered to Italian authorities and the hijacking ended with the release of the passengers.

On Tuesday, August 28, 1984, at 7:45 a.m., the operator in the Air Defence Command and Operations Centre was informed that the Shiraz-Tehran Iran Air 4260 flight with 195 passengers and 11 crew, had been hijacked while passing the Isfahan airspace and is heading south. After making the necessary arrangements, Bushehr Radar and Shiraz SOC were ordered to fly the air patrol F-4 fighter jet of Kharg Island towards the hijacked airplane. Also, another F-4 fighter jet took off from the sixth base of Bushehr to continue patrolling over the region. The pilot of the F-4, guided by the traffic controllers, began maneuvering in front of the hijacked plane. In the next step, the jet pilot fired a warning shot. The pilot of the hijacked plane announced that in case of a further threat, the hijackers would blow up the airplane. At 08:16 a.m., the fighter jet stopped chasing the plane. The pilot of the hijacked plane requested a landing from the Kuwait Flight Control Centre. The Kuwait government did not allow landing and the hijackers forced the pilot to fly to Iraq. While the airplane was flying over Kuwait, two Iraqi fighter jets entered the country’s airspace. They escorted the hijacked Iranian airplane towards Baghdad. The hijacked Iranian plane landed at Baghdad International Airport at 09:30 a.m.

On Saturday, September 8, 1984, at 11:30 a.m., a passenger aircraft flew from Bandar Abbas to Tehran. At 11:45 a.m., the plane deviated from its planned flight path and flew towards Bahrain by the order of hijackers. After refuelling in Bahrain, the plane flew to Cairo and landed at Cairo airport at 8 p.m. Hours after landing at Cairo airport, the hijackers headed for Baghdad, and at 10 a.m. the next morning, the hijacked plane landed on Baghdad International Airport.

On Wednesday, September 12, 1984, four hijackers tried to hijack the Tehran-Shiraz Iranian Airbus. But they failed because of the sky marshals’ precautionary measures. The Airbus airplane landed at Isfahan airport at 1:00 p.m. and the hijackers were arrested. Two hijackers were injured. They admitted to having affiliation with the Munafiqin Organization (People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran).

Some of the hijackings took place by the end of 1989:

Details	The Destination Intended by the Hijackers	Number of Hijackings	Year
Also, a helicopter was hijacked and forced to fly towards Bahrain.	France	1	1983
Two cases of unsuccessful hijacking attempts	Saudi Arabia, France (two times), Iraq (three times)	8	1984
Unknown	-	1	1986
One unsuccessful hijacking attempt	-	1	1988