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India for declaration of Pak as terrorist State : Clinching proof of its hand behind hijacking

	January 10, 2000

The Government has released pictures of five hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar, together with data about their identities and Pakistani nationality as a distinct proof of the involvement of Pakistan in the hijacking and demanding that it be declared a terrorist State by the international community. As was to be expected, Pakistan has rejected the presentation of the evidence to newsmen by Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, as “manufactured”, while the US was found to be cool to Prime Minister Vajpayee’s call to list Pakistan as a terrorist State putting it in the category of Iran, Libya and Syria.



The Home minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, pieced together known bits of information relating to the hijacking six days after the end of the crisis and produced this evidence of Pakistani involvement at a press conference in New Delhi on Jan. 6. He released pictures of the five sky pirates identified as Pakistani nationals and said in absolute terms that the ISI masterminded the operation. The security agencies obtained the hijackers’ names and pictures from four harkat-ul-Ansar operatives in Mumbai - two of them Pakistanis, one Indian and the other a Nepalese - while negotiations were on to break the standoff at Kandahar. They were arrested in Mumbai between Dec. 30 and 31 following a tipoff from the Intelligence Bureau and RAW who intercepted a message to one Abdul Latif in Mumbai by a Pakistan-based associate of the hijackers. Latif is reported to have been directed by his Pakistani associate to inform a certain London-based TV correspondent to put out the news on his international channel that if demands of the hijackers were not met, they would blow up the plane. This crucial clue over cell phone, which was intercepted by the intelligence agencies led to the arrest of Abdul Latif and the subsequent nabbing of his three other accomplices. According to the Home Minister’s revelations, the four arrested Harkat members provided logistical support to the hijackers and extended all assistance at least two months before the operation was carried out. The hijackers along with Latif made several trips to Kathmandu during the two month period of the hijack planning.



The four accomplices of the hijackers arrested in Mumbai are: Mohammed Rehan and Mohammad Iqbal [both Pakistanis], Yusuf Nepali of Nepal and Abdul Latif, an Indian. The security forces recovered from these arrested persons photographs of the five hijackers who were identified as Ibrahim Athar [hailing from Bahawalpur], Maulana Masood Azhar],Shahid Akhtar Sayed [Gulshan Iqbal locality Karachi],Sunni Ahmed Qazi [Defence Colony, Karachi], Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim [Akhtar Colony, Karachi][ and Shakir [Sukur city][. Ibrahim Athar, who was referred to as “chief” by other hijackers inside the Indian Airlines plane they had commandeered is the brother of Maulana Masood Azhar, one of the three militants released in exchange of prisoners.



Tracing their movements, Mr. Advani said that on Nov. 1, 1999 Ibrahim Athar accompanied by Latif left Mumbai for Calcutta by air from where they took a train to New Jalpaiguri and then went to Kathmandu by air. Latif later returned after dropping Athar at Kathmandu and again made a trip to Kathmandu on Dec. 1 along with the hijacker,Shakir. Giving details of the Pakistani involvement, Advani said, a little before the departure of the IC 814 from Kathmandu, a Pakistan embassy car [No. 42CD 14] arrived at the airport. Among three officials who alighted from the car and proceeded to the departure lounge was one who is believed to have supplied a consignment of RDX to a group of Punjab militants in Kathmandu some years back. Although Mr. Advani did not name him, he is known to be Arshad Cheema, First Secretary in the Pakistan Embassy in Kathmandu.



Offering more substantial evidence of Pakistan’s complicity in the hijacking, Mr. Advani released copies of two crucial pieces of communication where the Pakistani Government had requested the release of Maulana Masood Azhar. While the first letter of June 19, 1996 by Maj. Gen. [retd] Nasirullah Khan Babar, Interior Minister in the then Benazir Bhutto Government, to the then Indian High Commissioner, Mr. Satish Chandra in Islamabad requested his release on humanitarian grounds, the second letter of Dec. 15, 1997 by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to the Ministry of External Affairs urged consular access to Masood Azhar.



Earlier at an Iftaar party he hosted, the Prime Minister, Mr. Vajpayee had said, the Government had ample proof of the complicity of the neighbouring country in the hijacking and we will disclose this at the appropriate time and try to get the hijackers from Pakistan for trial. The National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, in a TV interview, also emphasised on Jan. 2 that India has “clear evidence of Pakistan’s involvement” in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane. He said, India’s assessment is based on radio intercepts between militant groups and their mentors in Pakistan in which one group asked the other why it had condemned the killings and the other said, “We have got instructions from Pakistan.” Mr. Mishra said, in fact, the behaviour of the Pakistan authorities during the entire crisis provided enough hints about their complicity. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh too told the media “all footprints” led one to Pakistan the five hijackers were Pakistanis, he emphasised. They took advice or orders between the sessions of the long negotiation from a “third party”: the first and the second parties being the Indian negotiators and the Taliban. There was much explosive material in boxes put on the aircraft as luggage. The source of this “luggage” was Pakistan. Loaded at Kathmandu, the explosives were meant to be used to blow up the plane. The threat to this effect had come from the hijackers frequently. Before the hijackers left, they insisted on taking away with them a suitcase and had the luggage section of the plane opened and removed a particular suitcase which allegedly carried RDX explosives intended to blow up the plane.



That the three militants who were released in exchange for the hostages surfaced in Pakistan and the hijackers too had headed for the Pakistani border city of Quetta from Kandahar is a further evidence of how deeply Pakistan was involved in the crime. “The Indian media has the tendency to lie”, said Chief Executive Gen Parvez Musharraf, while referring to Indian press reports that the hijackers and the released militants had entered Pakistan, but what about the Dawn, Reuters, ANI, CNN and the BBC? Masood Azhar was making a thundering speech in Karachi when Gen. Musharraf and his Foreign Minister were denying the presence on their soil of “anyone involved in the hijack drama stage-managed by India itself”.



Political observers say, while new Delhi has done right in exposing the identities of the hijackers, this can only be a first step. A lot more information of what happened at Kathmandu airport, including the way in which the hijackers succeeded in getting arms past the security check, has to be collected, presented and explained in a comprehensive manner.



India has asked Pakistan to either prosecute or hand over the five hijackers as Islamabad was a signatory to international conventions on hostage-taking and hijacking. The onus was on Pakistan, Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Jan. 7, as the hijackers were widely believed to be in that country.



Ram Jethmalani, the Law Minister, in an interview said, Pakistan was signatory to the Hague and Montreal conventions on hijacking and it was its duty to try the hijackers, if not extradite them to India. He said, once we are sure that the hijackers were given protection in Pakistan, we will make a formal request for extraditing them to India as there is no chance of their being tried in that country.



Pakistan has termed the claim by Home Minister Advani that the five hijackers were Pakistani nationals as “manufactured evidence”. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, commenting on Mr. Advani’s evidence produced at the news conference, said, it was nothing but part of continuing propaganda campaign of false accusations against Pakistan. He claimed that since the ending of the drama, India has not established contact with Pakistan nor provided any information with regard to the hijackers’ identity or any other relevant details. “In the meantime, obviously, the so-called evidence has been manufactured”, the spokesman said.



The Pakistan interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider promised that Pakistan would not allow the hijackers to enter the country and that they would be nabbed and tried as per international laws as soon as they crossed into its territory. But, the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir Prime Minister said, he would allow them to do so. He was responding to a statement by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh that all the hijackers were Pakistani nationals and pointed an accusing finger at Pakistan for its role in the hijacking.



Military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf had earlier rejected during an interview with CNN the possibility that the hijackers might be Pakistani nationals. He alleged that the whole drama might have been stage-managed by India with some ulterior motive against Pakistan.



Critics of Vajpayee Government’s handling of the hijacking case say, it may be covinced of Pakistan’s hand with a promise to launch a diplomatic campain to isolate it as a terrorist State. Yet, in a strange oversight, New Delhi has not sent even a formal protest to Islamabad. Nor has it confronted Pakistan with the evidence that was made public by Home Minister Advani at his press conference. This has naturally given Pakistan the opportunity to make its point that “we have not been given any evidence, we have not been shown anything. They “Indians” should have shared information with us, they should have come to us and said here are the names”. The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said, the statement is part of the continuing propaganda campaign of false accusations.



PM for Pak to be declared terrorist State



Openly accusing Pakistan of having been behind the hijacking of the Indian plane, Prime Minister Vajpayee has urged major nations of the world to declare Pakistan a terrorist State. Mr. Vajpayee told reporters in Pune on Jan. 3 that all the informations with the Government about the hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft and the subsequent developments made it clear that the hijacking was an integral part of a Pak-backed campaign of terrorism. The Prime Minister said, apart from their stated demands, the hijackers and their sponsors [Pakistan] had planned to internationalize the Kashmir issue and isolate India diplomatically. However, he said, they had failed miserably in their diabolic designs and if anything was internationalized it was the brazen manner in which terrorism was resorted to by those seeking to break India’s unity and integrity. He said, the hijacking episode has strengthened the legitimacy of India’s traditional stand on Kashmir and simultaneously it has shown to the world community that “Pakistan’s kashmir agenda is not only baseless but is being pursued through terrorism”which constituted a potent threat of global security.

Coinciding with the Prime Minister’s global appeal, US Democratic Congressman Garry Ackerman said, the hijack formed part of a “hegemonistic” campaign by certain sections in Islamabad to “dismember” India. He said, it is time the US sent a clear message that the Administration will not tolerate terrorism of any variety or hue in any part of the world.

Following up Mr. Vajpayee’s demand, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman drew attention to the fact that Pakistan was removed from the US “watch list” of terrorist States in 1993, but Islamabad’s support to terrorism since then had increased. Reiterating that “there is a pattern to Pakistan being a nurturing ground and exporter of terrorism”, the spokesman said the Dec 24 hijacking “has lent weight to what we have been expressing all along.” As for the US, he said, Washington is aware of India’s concerns since different terrorist groups like Harkat-ul-Ansar and Lashkar-e-Toiba were based in Pakistan and were openly extending threats to the Indian leadership. He said, there was a strong overlap with the US in coping with this problem of terrorism. Both countries have a convergence of interests on the issue.



US rejects demand to declare Pak a rogue State

However, according to opinion outside the Government, unlike during Kargil, India’s diplomatic offensive against Pakistan is not being met with equal vigour from the US yet. Despite India’s assertion that the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which the US considers one of the most ruthless terrorist outfits in South Asia and which enjoys Pakistan’s patronage, was evidently involved in the hijacking, the State Department has indicted that it is not enough provocation to warrant designation of Pakistan a terrorist State. While leading US Congressmen like Gary Ackerman and Frank Pallone have come out with strong statements in favour of India over the hijacking, both the State Department and White House spokesman have indicated there was not yet sufficient ground to take such a harsh action against Pakistan. Given the cautious stand the US is maintaining on whether or not it deems Pakistan fit to be designated a terrorist State, it is felt India must do so unilaterally, beginning by striking where it hurts most and cause damage to Pakistan’s beleaguered economy to the extent that is within India’s means.

The Home Minister, Mr. Advani discussed with the US ambassador in New Delhi, Mr.Richard Celeste, on Jan. 6 Indo-US cooperation on measures to combat terrorist activities especially in the wake of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane. A US Senators delegation led by a close associate of President Clinton, Senator Tom Daschle, is on a visit to New Delhi currently and it is expected among other things, the issue of two-way cooperation on dealing with international terrorism. The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, is expected to raise the issue when he meets the Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott in London later this month to continue their nuclear round of talks.

The US has officially reacted very cautiously to India’s demand to declare Pakistan a terrorist State, virtually rejecting the request. Refusing to join Vajpayee’s campaign, the US on Jan. 4 made it clear it would like to treat Islamabad as innocent till proved guilty. The main reaction has come from the spokesmen of the State Department and the White House, James Rubin and Mr Lockhart respectively. Responding to Mr. Vajpayee’s call, James Rubin said, for a State to be designated a terrorist State, the secretary of State must determine that its Government has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. Pakistan, on the other hand, he said, had assured the US that it will act in compliance with international aviation agreements and arrest the hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight should they be found on its soil. Though India claims that the hijackers are now in Pakistan, Rubin said, Washington was not aware of their whereabouts. The White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart, without commenting on Indian demand to declare Pakistan a rogue State, however, said, the US will not rest until the hijackers were brought to justice and owed to strengthen cooperation with India in combating terrorism.

Though India claims that “evidence and the circumstantial evidence” point to Pakistan’s hand in the hijack, senior officials of the European Union, who met in New Delhi on Jan. 4 to discuss the incident, felt that India has not been able to table enough evidence to prove Pakistan’s complicity. Britain too has declined to declare Pakistan a terrorist Sate. Replying to a question on the issue, the British High Commissioner in New Delhi,Rob Young said, it is not UK Government’s practice to designate States in that way. UK has even said that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British citizen of Pakistan origin, who was one of the three terrorists wrapped for the hostages, would be free to visit the UK. The argument is that he had not been formally convicted by an Indian court.

Although the US State Department has dismissed the Indian demand to declare Pakistan a terrorist State, the Indian ambassador in Washington Naresh Chandra, has claimed that the US Administration “has not flatly refused to designate Pakistan a terrorist State.” He told a seminar on terrorism organized by Potomac institute for Policy Studies in Washington on Jan. 7 that India will provide to the US in two-three days “direct evidence” to implicate Pakistan in the recent hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane. Referring to the demand for direct evidence, pictures and confessions, he said, “”if you see the pattern of the circumstantial evidence, I don’t think any reasonable man will have any doubt that the people who planned this whole operation, they could not have had a base anywhere other than one country”. The Indian envoy said, circumstantial evidence left no doubt that the hijackers of the plane could not have had a base anywhere other than Pakistan. “The fact is the plan originated from Pakistan, the people who have perpetrated this came from Pakistan and those released were from Pakistan or of Pakistani origin.”

India which has repeatedly conveyed to the international community over the last decade its concerns over Pakistan’s support to cross-border terrorism sees the hijacking as an opportune moment to nudge the US to come to terms with the realities in Pakistan. India fully acknowledges the steadily hardening formulations of the Clinton Administration, over the years, on Pakistan’s support for international terrorism. In recent months, Washington has gone beyond the earlier reiteration of the Pakistani claim that it extends “moral and diplomatic support” to militant groups engaged in terrorism against India. The US now says that Pakistan provides “material support” to some groups such as the zharkat-ul-Mujahideen [HUM], said to be behind the hijacking. The US has already branded the HUM a terrorist organisation following evidence of its involvement in the kidnapping and murder of western citizens in 1995. It is also aware of the threats that the HUM poses to the long term security of Pakistan itself. Washington charged that the HUM “is also tied to the Lshkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant sectarian group believed to be responsible for the attempt of assassination of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in January, 1999.

India is, therefore, now asking the Washington to take its own analysis of the sources of extremism inside Pakistan to the local conclusion and declare Islamabad guilty of sponsoring terrorism. But, the Clinton Administration, it is well understood in New Delhi, is holding itself back not because of a lack of technical evidence on Pakistan’s support to terrorist groups. The legacy of the past American relationship with Pakistan and the continuing expectations in Washington that Islamabad could be a useful partner in the future make the Clinton Administration reluctant to draw the inescapable conclusion. The US has enough and more evidence on the deep links between the Pakistani security establishment and the various terrorist groups operating worldwide. What holds it back is the concern that isolation Islamabad would lessen its leverages there and further radicalise the “failing State” of Pakistan. Political observers say, in initiating a direct campaign to get Islamabad declared a State sponsor of international terrorism, India is challenging the political assumptions in the US about Pakistan.

Looking backward, this is not the first time that such a demand is being made by India in relation to Pakistan. Tonnes of evidence in support were presented to the US and other countries when Punjab was reeling under terrorist activities. In fact, the US Administration not long ago came close to branding Pakistan but somehow - thanks to the Pakistan lobby in the US and some other factors - it was let off the hook. Last year when the focus was on Kargil, President Clinton’s concern for Kashmir was obvious from his advice to Nawaz Sharif, when he was called to Washington, to withdraw the intruders which ultimately ended the crisis and the status quo in the LoC was restored. But, now the US is wanting “clinching evidence” of Pakistani involvement in the hijacking drama while not giving ear to what Mr.Vajpayee, Mr. Advani, Mr. Jaswant Singh, and Mr. Brajesh Mishra have been presenting ever since the hostages returned home. Even the presence of the militants in Pakistan and the dubious role played by the Taliban on behalf of its mentor, Pakistan, has not been accepted as the so-called clinching evidence.



According to former Foreign Secretary who also served as India’s High Commissioner in Islamabad, S.K. Singh, India must not await the international community’s ratification to declare Pakistan a terrorist State. Terrorism, he feels, is Pakistan’s low cost option to foment trouble in India. Since it affects India the most, it is for it who must take it up seriously instead of waiting for other countries to launch an offensive against Pakistan. Admitting that there would be plenty of bleeding hearts in the global arena if India were to declare Pakistan a terrorist State, Mr. Singh feels India must go on the offensive, recall its High Commissioner from Islambad and snap all diplomatic ties while taking the aid of regional safeguards like the SAARC protocol on terrorism to support its claim.



US warning against Azhar’s observations



Significantly, the United States which has refused to take notice of the documentary and circumstantial evidence furnished by India as a proof of Pakistan’s involvement in the hijacking case, a brief anti-US comment by the just released militant, Maulana Masood Azhar has prompted it to warn Pakistan to leash Masood’s activities and the US promptly ordered the Maulana to calm down. Islamabad told the Maulana, a cleric released by India in exchange of hostages, to desist from making provocative statements against foreign countries. According to Interior Ministry sources in Islamabad, he has also been advised to lie low and not agitate public sentiment. The decision has been taken after the US protested to his comments in the wake of its two statements that caused Islamabad huge diplomatic embarrassment. At a gathering of his faithful in Karachi on his return from Kandahar, Maulana had declared that the “Muslims should not rest in peace until we have destroyed America and India”. He also revealed his global terrorist ambitions when he called on all muslims to “join the jihad (holy war) for the people of Kashmir, Bosnia and Chechenya.” As for India, he said, The struggle to rid kashmir of Indian authorities will continue”. “Tell Indians and those who have suppressed Muslims that Mujahideen [holy warriors] are a force of Allah and will hoist the flag of Islam in this world soon”, he told the crowd.

Sharply reacting to Maulana’s call for jehad against the US, the State department spokesman, James Rubin, warned Pakistan that it would hold Islamabad responsible for all his terrorist activities which threatened the lives of Indian and US citizens. He asked Pakistan to prosecute the militant leader, Masood Azhar if it was found to have violated the Pakistani law.



Government of India has welcomed as “entirely understandable” the warning by the US State Department to Pakistan that it should stop Azhar from making provocative statements and prosecute him if he has broken any law by giving calls for jihad against the US [and India]. Reacting to James Rubin’s statement, Foreign Office spokesman said on Jan. 7 that it is not the first time that such strong statements had emanated from terrorist groups which had been allowed to thrive in Pakistan. The spokesman recalled that the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba during its recent convention in Lahore had called for the launch of a jehad against the US and India at its convention late year and thretened violence against various countries and their leaders. “Pakistan has, however, chosen to overlook such statements”, he regretted, adding that in November last year, New Delhi had brought them to the notice of Islamabad. But, the latter had responded by contending that it respected freedom of speech.

Political observers say, by calling for the destruction of the US and India, the militants in Pakistan are ensuring that the two demodraies will come closer. This, they say, cannot be palatable to Islamabad, which already fears that the US and the rest of the Western world are beginning to lean in favour of India.