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| India-Pakistan |
| India arrests suspect in 1999 Kandahar hijacking |
| 2012-09-14 |
| Never forgive, never forget, never understand. And never drop the investigation. [Dawn] Police in Indian Kashmire have cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! a myrmidon suspected of involvement in the 1999 hijacking of an Indian passenger plane that was flown to Afghanistan, a government front man told AFP Thursday. Mehrajuddin Dand, alias Javed was cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! by police in Kashmire's Kishtwar district on Thursday morning, ending a near 13-year-old pursuit of the forces of Evil behind the high-profile hijacking. The New Delhi-bound Indian Airlines aircraft, flight IC-814, with 157 people on board was seized and flown to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar by five men after it took off from the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on December 24, 1999. Kuldeep Singh Dhatwalia, a front man for the home ministry told AFP that Dand was cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! in the morning and that the "initial investigation reveals that he provided logistical support to the hijackers". Media reports said that Dand had provided assistance and fake travel documents to the five hijackers, none of whom were apprehended by police after the incident. Dhatwalia claimed Dand moved across the border between India and Pakistain for years until police nabbed him. "He is being questioned in a number of other cases as well, but we cannot reveal those details yet," he said. The 1999 hijack crisis ended after India's then Hindu nationalist government swapped three Islamist forces of Evil imprisoned in New Delhi for the captives. Five actual hijackers -- Ibrahim Athar, who is a brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, S. A. Sayed alias Doctor, Z. I. Mistri alias Bhola and R. G. Verma alias Shakir -- commandeered the plane to Kandahar after it was refused landing request in Pakistain. Following tense negotiations with Indian officials the hijackers successfully got Azhar and two other forces of Evil released from Indian jails in exchange for the passengers and the plane. Indian foreign minister at the time Jaswant Singh and bigwigs escorted the freed inmates to Kandahar where the exchange took place. The prisoners released by India included Mushtaq Zargar, chief of Al-Umar Mujahideen myrmidon outfit. The third free myrmidon, Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, also known as Sheikh Omar, was later involved in the kidnap and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistain -- for which he was cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! and sentenced to death. ... but so far hasn't had his neck stretched... |
| Posted by:Fred |