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A person suspected to be a key conspirator in the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in 1999 has been detained in Chile. The Central Bureau of Investigation will dispatch a team to the South American nation soon to verify whether he is the same person wanted in India.
Highly-placed sources in the government and the probe agency said on Monday that the Chilean police informed the CBI that they had detained a person identified as Abdul Rauf. An Interpol Red Corner notice was pending against Rauf.
The sources said that the Chilean police had also sent his finger prints for verification, but neither Rauf's picture nor his finger prints were available with the CBI.
A team would be soon traveling to Chile to ascertain his identity as well as question him, the sources said.
Rauf, who is wanted by the CBI, is the brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar. He was among the main conspirators in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999.
The JeM chief was among the three terrorists exchanged for the plane and over 160 passengers after eight-days of negotiations carried out at Kandhahar, a city in southern Afghanistan.
According to the confessional statement of Abdul Latif, one of the conspirators who is lodged in jail at present, Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar, brother of Azhar, criss-crossed India and Nepal several times.
In July 1999, the conspirators held several secret meetings in Dhaka and Mumbai.
In August, Ibrahim Attar, the second brother of Maulana Masood Azhar, informed Abdul Latif about the plan and the forged passports and travel documents for the five hijackers were arranged.
A crucial meeting between the gang members took place in the Kathmandu zoo on December 13. Latif was told he would not be on the hijacked plane, but will remain as the gang's point-man in Mumbai.
Thereafter, the hijackers moved to their base in Kathmandu but kept in touch with Abdul Latif, who, in turn, relayed the messages to Abdul Rauf in Karachi.
On the fateful day too, the hijackers kept informing him when they cleared security for boarding IC-814 or when they were in the waiting lounge.
It was the telephone call made by Abdul Rauf to Abdul Latif, asking him to call up the BBC offices in London and give details of the hijacking, which were intercepted by investigating agencies.