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Documents relating to IC-814 hijacking found in Kabul

Dharam Shourie in New York

Several documents related to the 1999 hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane were found in a house in Kabul showing the involvement of a Pakistan-backed terrorist group in the act.

The documents include a receipt of purchase of one hijacker's ticket, that hijacker's fake Indian identity card, airport departure fee receipts and the train passes the hijackers used while living in India planning the attack.

Four ticket stubs, two boarding passes and Indian Airlines Airbus 300 safety procedure were also found from the house in the upper class Wasir Akbar Khan neighbourhood near embassy district, the New York Times reported.

The Indian Airlines plane was hijacked on December 24, 1999 while on a flight from Kathmandu and taken to Dubai and finally to Kandahar.

The hostages were freed in exchange for three jailed members of Harkat ul-Mujahedeen, a terrorist group with links to Pakistan.

The hijackers of the plane escaped.

The hijackers were believed to have entered Pakistan and disappeared.

Those freed in exchange for the hostages held public rallies in Pakistan and started militant groups, most notably Jaish-e-Mohammed, the paper said.

Business cards of Harkat's secretary general, blank stationery enrolment forms and letters to the leaders of the group were found in the same room as the hijackers' tickets.

Letters of introduction from Jaish-e-Mohammed asking Harkat officials to enrol young men in Afghanistan 'schools' were also found, the paper said.

Also found were tiny pieces of paper inscribed with the names, ages, and nationalities of hostages, the paper said.

These were among scores of documents found in the house, including terrorist training manuals.

The house, the paper said quoting neighbours, was headquarters of Pakistani militants.

Its presence, the Times said, suggests why a Taliban-run Afghanistan was of such a strategic importance to Pakistan over the years.

The country provided a haven for Islamic militants who could later be deployed to operate in Kashmir.

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