IA hijack: CBI chief slams Islamabad

Patiala/Gurgaon/Delhi: Three persons were on Tuesday found guilty for the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu, IC 814, in 1999. But they were only support players, not the real culprits, who are probably still in Pakistan.
The flight from Kathmandu to Delhi was hijacked 40 minutes after take-off on December 25, 1999. It was taken to Lahore, where it was denied permission to land. It then came to Amritsar, and took off again for Lahore, where it was refuelled. It then went to Dubai before turning up in Taliban-controlled Kandahar.
At a news conference soon after the sentencing, CBI director Vijay Shanker said, “We have received no cooperation whatsoever from Pakistan... The released militants and the absconders in the case are present in Pakistan. Their arrest warrants were forwarded to Pakistani authorities with the request to arrest and extradite them.”
The five hijackers — Ibrahim Athar alias Chief, Sunny Ahmad Qazi alias Burger, Shahid Sayeed Akhtar alias Moti or Doctor, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistri alias Bhola and Shakir alias Shankar — were never caught. Nor were co-conspirators Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar. All seven absconders are Pakistanis.
06/02/08 Gurpreet S Nibber, Sanjeev K Ahuja and Tushar Srivastava/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Air India Domestic Feb 2008, Foreign Feb 2008, NACIL Feb 2008, Safety Feb 2008