India requests Pakistan to extradite hijackers of IC-814
SUMIR KAUL

NEW DELHI, JULY 9: The Indian authorities have made a formal request to the Pakistani Government for extradition of five hijackers and two of their accomplices responsible for hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in December last.

The requests have been made under the SAARC and the Hague agreements under which Pakistan has the obligation to extradite them, the CBI sources said.

The CBI has approached through Ministry of External Affairs the Pakistani authorities about the extradition of Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhter Sayed and Shakir - and two accomplices Yusuf Azhar and Abdul Rauf, agency sources said.

Yusuf Azhar and Abdul Rauf are believed to be key conspirators behind the hijacking of the plane from Kathmandu to Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan on December 24.

The sources said the agency had already approached the Interpol for issuance of "red corner" notice against these people following which the international organisation had alerted airports, ports and major railway stations about the hijackers and accomplices.

The CBI on June 21 filed a chargesheet against 10 people in the hijacking case which included these seven and three Indian nationals.

The three Indian nationals chargesheeted are Abdul Latif alias Patel, Bhupalmar Damai alias Yusuf Nepali and Dilip Kumar Bhujel, the agency sources said and claimed that all the three had confessed to their involvement in the case.

All the three are in CBI custody, while the other seven are absconding and believed to be in Pakistan.

The sources said the agency was also probing a mysterious call made to Amritsar airport when the plane had landed there briefly on December 24 before flying to Lahore in Pakistan.

The caller identifying himself as joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs had ordered the airport authorities to allow the plane to take off.

However, the sources said it was difficult to trace the caller as there was no record available with the Amritsar telephone department as to where the call had been made from.

The sources said Masood Azhar's release was the motive for the hijack and that his rescuers were a part of the same gang of militants who tried to get him released by digging an underground tunnel in the Kot Balwal prison in Jammu in June 1999. They said a crucial meeting took place in the Kathmandu zoo on December 13, where Latif was told he would not be on the hijacked plane and should remain as the gang's point-man in Mumbai.

Thereafter, the hijackers moved their base in Kathmandu but kept in touch with Abdul Latif, who in turn relayed the message to Abdul Rauf in Karachi, the sources said. The CBI had secured warrants against the five hijackers and two accomplices from a sessions court in Patiala on May 12.

While Athar is said to be a resident of Bhawalpur, other four hijakcers and two accomplices are stated to be residents of the port city of Karachi.

The two accomplices - Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar - are brother and brother-in-law respectively of Maulana Masood Azhar, one of the three militants released in exchange for the hostages, the sources said.

While Latif and Nepali are alleged by the agency of having provided logistical help to the hijackers and helped them in procuring Indian passports, Bhujel has been alleged to have helped the hijackers in procuring arms used for hijacking.

The government has already moved the Nepalese authoritiesto facilitate interrogation of the officials concerned in Kathmandu, the sources said.

The aircraft was hijacked on December 24 while flying in the Indian air space under the control of air traffic control, Varanasi.

A hijacking case was initially registered at the Indira Gandhi international airport and later transferred to Raja Sansi airport police station in Amritsar as the plane had landed briefly there before flying to Lahore.

The case was sifted to CBI on January 11 and during the course the agency examined 350 witnesses.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.