Abdul Rauf not IC-814 hijacker, says CBI
Sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who are in Chile capital Santiago to confirm if a man arrested there as Abdul Rauf is the key conspirator of the 1999 Indian Airlines flight IC-814 hijacking, said he is not a terrorist but a visa offender.
The CBI group comprising of two members is meeting the Chilean authorities to verify the suspicions and later India might seek extradition of Rauf.
He is allegedly the brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Masood Azhar, the terrorist the Indian government was forced to release during the Kandahar hijacking.
Indian Home secretary G K Pillai said if the team sent to Chile confirms the identity of Rauf, “we will make a move to extradite him.”
Rauf was arrested in human trafficking charges and fake visa cases in January in Chile. He was allegedly trying to push Pakistanis to North America through Chile.
During investigation Chile police found an Interpol notice against him for the hijacking.
Chile said extradition proceedings could be made if India confirms the identity of Rauf as the terrorist wanted in the hijacking.
“If the government of India wants extradition, it must apply with all the papers they have,” Chile’s ambassador to India Cristian Barros said.
Indian Airlines Flight 814 was an Indian Airlines Airbus A300 en route from Kathmandu in Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi when on Dec 24, 1999, it was hijacked. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based group, was accused for the hijacking.
After touching down in Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai, the hijackers forced the aircraft to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The hijackers released 27 of 176 passengers in Dubai but fatally stabbed one and wounded several others.
The hijacking lasted for seven days and ended after India released three militants ?Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar.
