Needle of suspicion on Pak
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 27 — The confirmation that four out of six hijackers of the Indian Airlines IC 814 are Pak nationals has again confirmed the fact that Pakistan has been lending active support to terrorists wanting to create disturbances in India.

While the Minister for External Affairs, Mr Jaswant Singh had pointed a finger towards Pakistan’s involvement yesterday, the confirmation of the identity of the hijackers has only further strengthened the fact that despite repeated denials, that country was not ready to put a stop to its nefarious designs.

Five of the six hijackers were today identified as Ahmed Shiekh, S.A. Qazi, Ibrahim Mistri and Syed Akhtary Syed (all Pakistanis) and Gopal Tarmarker (Nepal). However the identity of the sixth hijacker was not released.

Experts here said that despite repeated international condemnation, Pakistan was again facing a situation where it would be difficult for it to explain to the international community the involvement of its nationals in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane and further their demand for the release of a Pakistani terrorist, who was arrested by the Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Although India had been cautious in its pronouncement of confirming Pakistan’s involvement, but the identity of the hijackers has lent credence to the fact that Pakistan was an active base for the Pan-Islamic terrorists. It was fully backing the efforts being put in by Osama bin Laden to create disturbances not just in India, but throughout the world.

The External Affairs Minister had yesterday said that the fact the hijackers had demanded the release of just a Pakistani terrorist was proof enough of its involvement. Further the defensive attitude of the Pakistani government especially its anti-India tirade on the PTV was another pointer to its involvement, despite it repeatedly harping that India was making unnecessary allegations against it.

Experts, who did not want to be identified, said after the Kargil intrusion, in which Pakistan kept denying its involvement till the end despite concrete evidence against it, this incident of hijacking, which has put on stake almost 160 innocent lives, is enough for India to rake up the issue at the international level. They said it was time India again pressed for the demand of Pakistan being declared as a ‘terrorist state’.

Experts also said the involvement of a Napalese national had also confirmed that Pakistani intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had very successfully been using Nepal as a base for pushing in terrorists into India. The Indian intelligence agencies had always been pointing to Nepal being a soft target for Pakistan and the ISI using it for its nefarious designs.

Nepal, which has quite friendly relations with Pakistan, was successfully being used for spreading narco-terrorism in India.

Experts said with the Nepalese economy not being very healthy, this source of income for the youth was not only an easy one, but one which paid handsomely. Besides, initial reports about Gopal Tarmarker point out that he was allegedly involved in the smuggling business with the active support of Pakistan and was also owning some duty free shops at Tribhuvan airport in Kathmandu.

Sources said although the identity of the hijackers was officially released today, it had been known to the Indian Government for the past two days. The Indian Government was only trying to further confirm it before officially releasing the names.

Apparently, the Intelligence Bureau had zeroed in on seven persons from the list of passengers on Saturday itself. From the list of passengers, it had initially identified 50 persons and then cut them to 13 before further sizing them down to seven.

This they did by feeding their names in the computers and coming out with the real names of the hijackers.

The sources said the IB had an alert on the men since the last Independence Day. They were expected to carry out some incident to make their demand. However they were not successful and finally carried out the hijacking as a desperate act.

Musharraf denies involvement

ISLAMABAD, Dec 27 (PTI) — Pakistan today criticised India for allowing the hijacked Indian Airlines plane to leave Amritsar and alleged that New Delhi was making “baseless” propaganda against Islamabad.

“India should have stopped the plane when it landed at Amritsar,” Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf told reporters on a visit to the occupied Kashmir, official APP news agency reported.

He charged India with making “baseless” allegation against Pakistan that it was involved in the hijacking of the plane.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, when asked whether India suspected Pakistan’s involvement in the hijacking, had said yesterday that first reports from Kathmandu indicated the possibility of the five hijackers arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport by a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight and getting into the departure lounge for the IC 814 flight where somebody had booked five seats on one name.

General Musharraf said he ruled out any talks with India until New Delhi agreed to discuss the Kashmir dispute as a first priority though it is a “complicated issue”.

“I want to reiterate that there is a change in the policy....If there is a dialogue with India, it will be on Kashmir and if India wants to talk on Kashmir issue, dialogue can be resumed,” the army ruler told reporters.

Masood’s father, brother questioned

KARACHI, Dec 27 (AFP) — Pakistani security officials today took in for questioning the relatives of an Islamic scholar, whose release has been demanded by the hijackers of an Indian airliner, the cleric’s sisters told AFP.

The father of Maulana Masood Azhar, who has emerged as a central figure in the Indian hijack saga, Maulana Allah Bux, and his brother Mohammad Tahir, were taken away from their home in Bahawalpur, central Pakistan, they said.

“Early in the morning they took away my father and brother”, Azhar’s elder sister said. She declined to be named.

They (father and brother) said they would come home soon, but have not come as yet”, she said. “We are worried and alone”.