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| India-Pakistan |
| Kandahar hijacking: life term for three |
| 2008-02-06 |
| CHANDIGARH: A special CBI court in Patiala on Tuesday awarded life sentences to Abdul Latif, Dalip Kumar and Yusuf Nepali for abetting and conspiring with terrorists who hijacked the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in Afghanistan on December 24, 1999. They were found guilty on various counts, including murder. Handing down the 69-page judgment in the case, which took nine years and involved 120 witnesses, the judge, Inderjit Singh Walia, sentenced the three to life imprisonment for colluding with those behind the hijacking that was aimed at seeking freedom for top terrorists — Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmed Zargar and Sheikh Ahmed Omar Sayeed. The court also awarded seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for attempt to murder, five years’ term for kidnapping, abduction and wrongful confinement. The three also received another five years’ term for forgery and a fine of Rs. 2,000 along with a three-year prison sentence for criminal intimidation. The accused were found guilty for possessing illegal weapons, for which they got three years in jail under the provisions of the Arms Act and were also convicted for entering into a criminal conspiracy. The proceedings were held inside the Central Jail in Patiala, where an anti-hijacking court was set up under the IPC provisions and anti-hijacking law. The trial was not open to journalists and no contact with the accused was allowed. While the accused have been lodged in the Patiala Central Jail since 1999, the main accused in the case are still at large even as the Interpol has issued notices. The CBI, which had named 10 persons in its chargesheet, identified the hijackers as Ibrahim Athar alias Chief, Sunny Ahmed Qazi alias Burger, Sahid Sayeed Akhtar alias Doctor, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry alias Bhola, Shakir alias Shankar and Jaish-e-Muhammad Maulana Masood Azhar’s brother Yusuf Azhar and his brother-in-law Abdul Rauf. While Latif was said to have co-ordinated the conspiracy in India, Yusuf who is a Nepali citizen, was charged with arranging passports and tickets at Kathmandu and Dalip Kumar, of providing the hijackers their arms and ammunition. Announcing that they would appeal before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, defence counsel B.S. Sodhi said his clients had been made scapegoats. He said the prosecution did not place on record the evidence the investigating agencies gathered from Bangladesh and Dubai. On December 24, 1999, IC-814 with 179 passengers and 11 crew members was hijacked by five armed men, while it was on its return journey from Kathmandu to New Delhi. The plane landed at Amritsar’s Raja Sansi International Airport after Pakistan refused it permission to land initially. It was then taken to Lahore and Dubai. Amid high drama, the aircraft landed at Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, from where an eight-day ordeal for the passengers and crew began. The freedom of the hijacked people was ensured after the release of the three terrorists lodged in Indian jails. To intimidate the Indian authorities, the hijackers killed 25-year-old Rupen Katyal and stabbed Satnam Singh, who survived multiple injuries. |
| Posted by:john frum |