In a major breakthrough for India, as Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday night has detained a key accused in Kandahar hijacking case who was in the list of most wanted terrorist and also involved in several terror attacks, informed a senior police official on Thursday.
According to Police official, the state police have been able to arrest Mehraj-ud-din Dand, a terrorist wanted for his involvement in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu and carried it to Kandahar on December 24, 1999. He was accused of providing logistics support to five terrorists who had hijacked the plane.
He was arrested from Jammu-Srinagar National Highway of Kishtwar district of state. He is also accused in other terror activities including Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case and having relationship with banned terror group Hizbul Mujahideen and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), informed police.
On Dec 24, 1999, IC-814, with 176 passengers on board, was hijacked by five Pakistani militants and forced to land in three different airports - Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai - before being taken to Kandahar, the bastion of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In Dubai, Rupin Katyal, one of the passengers, was fatally stabbed by the hijackers.
The aircraft had to spend a week on the tarmac in Kandahar before terrorists were swapped for the hostages. Mehraj-ud-din Dand had allegedly provided the fake documents to the hijackers, claimed police.
The hijackers later demanded to release three notorious militants - Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and one other. Maulana Masood Azhar later founded a terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad while Ahmed Omar is accused of killing American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Dand is also believed to have been a key lieutenant of Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin for many years, the police said.
--With IANS Inputs--
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