Maulana Azar's second brother remote
controlled hijacking from Karachi
Josy Joseph in New Delhi
It has now been confirmed that the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 on December 24 was remote controlled from Pakistan.
Investigations have revealed that a second brother of Maulana Masood Azar, the Muslim cleric who was released along with two more terrorists by the Indian government in exchange of 160-odd passengers, monitored the operation from Karachi. Ibrahim Athar, who led the hijackers, is also a brother of Masood Azar.
It has also been established that the hijackers carried the weapons on their own and that Athar was the first passenger of IC 814 to clear the security check at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Athar concealed the weapons in his suit, and passed through the lax security without any frisking, through a dead metal detector.
The Bombay police and the Nepali investigators have pieced together the events of December 24. They are as follows:
Ibrahim Athar reached the Tribhuvan airport a few minutes after 1400 hours. He was the first passenger in the queue to board IC 814, which was slated to leave the airport at 1525 hours.
Wearing a formal suit, Athar walked in for the security clearance after checking in his luggage.
He looked relaxed even though he was carrying knives and pistols concealed in his clothes.
The metal detector was not working. Athar, it now turns out, knew that.
He walked through the security check, looking straight down into the aisle. The security personnel did not frisk him. Athar knew they wouldn't.
He walked into the departure lounge, a crowded area with a cafeteria, a bookstall, a tourism counter and duty-free shops selling mostly liquor. Through the window he could see the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 sitting on the tarmac. The televisions installed in the lounge played a drama based on Hindu mythology.
Moving to a secluded corner, Athar called up Kunal Guest House, a few minutes drive
from the airport, where the other four hijackers were waiting for his instructions. On receiving ''Chief Saab's'' green signal, the four -- Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim and Shakir -- left for the airport in a taxi. The four had made several calls to Pakistan and Bombay on their satellite phone during their stay at the guest house.
While on their way to the airport the four hijackers came to know that the flight was delayed by over an hour. They called up their contacts in Bombay, who are in police custody now, and informed them about the delay. They also instructed them to relay the information to Karachi.
The four hijackers reached the airport, passed the security check and entered the
departure lounge without any problem. It is not known if they exchanged any greetings or talked to their ''Chief Saab'' in the lounge. It is also not known how many weapons the four carried with them, or if they carried weapons at all.
The plane took off at 1625 hours.
Sources in the Nepali police have told rediff.com that they have not found any direct evidence of the involvement of any official of the Pakistan embassy, including first secretary Mohammed Arshad Cheema, in the hijacking.
It has now been confirmed that Cheema and his assistant Zia Ansari were at the airport when the hijackers reached there. But India's claim that he (Cheema) handed over a bag containing weapons to the hijackers has not been confirmed. In fact, Indian investigators now believe that a bag may not have been handed over by Cheema at all.
Currently, the hijackers are at an Harkat-ul-Ansar camp in Afghanistan. Maulana Masood Azar is a celebrity in Karachi and the whereabouts of the other two released militants are not known.
Complete coverage of the hijack crisis
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