Hijackers in Pak, says Govt

Hijackers in Pak, says Govt
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 4: The hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 have been traced to a place called Zhob in Baluchistan, a province in Pakistan which borders southern Afghanistan, according to highly placed sources in the Government.

This information was pieced together through signal intercepts, the sources said. They pointed out that it conforms to information given by Taliban officials on the day the hijacking drama ended in Kandahar that the hijackers, along with the three militants released by India, had headed for Quetta in Pakistan. Zhob is believed to be a small town in Baluchistan, just north of Quetta.

Meanwhile in Islamabad, Pakistani interior minister Moinuddin Haider reiterated today that the hijackers had not ``entered Pakistan and that if they do so they will be immediately arrested''. He described the allegations about the hijackers entering Pakistan as ``irresponsible statements'', adding ``we have said that if they come to Pakistan, we will catch them.''

But on December 31, theday the hijacking crisis ended in Kandahar, the Taliban ``permanent representative'' at the UN in New York, Maulvi Hakim Mujahid, had told The Indian Express that ``the hijackers have started their journey towards Pakistan.'' He had claimed that according to the agreement, the hijackers were supposed to leave Afghanistan ``within ten hours'' from the time they left the aircraft.

In the last couple of days, however, Pakistan has vehemently denied that the hijackers have entered its territory, with Pakistani foreign minister Abdus Sattar saying that if they did so, they would be dealt with according to international law.

Pakistan is also believed to have sealed its border with Afghanistan. Indian officials have pointed out that this step was taken only 48 hours ago, whereas the hijackers had left Afghanistan four days ago.

The information that the hijackers are in Pakistan is part of the evidence that New Delhi is believed to be piecing together, linking the hijackers -- who are said to bePakistani nationals -- with Islamabad.

Government sources said they were in possession of intercepts that clearly revealed that the hijackers in Kandahar were talking to their ``mentors in Pakistan''.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had told a news conference here on January 1 that according to the intercepts, the hijackers would abruptly break off their negotiations with the Indian officials and talk to ``someone outside the airport who was not the Taliban''. Singh said it seemed as if a ``third force'' was directing the course of the negotiations between India and the hijackers.

In Islamabad, the deputy chief of mission of the Taliban mission to Pakistan, Qazi Habibullah Fauzi, was also quoted as telling journalists that the Taliban would ``not say anything about the destination of the hijackers as was agreed in Kandahar''.