Freeze conversions: Walk the second mile
Silent protagonist of hijacking drama was behind merger of two fanatic
bodies
Observer Political Bureau
The Observer of Business and Politics
December 29, 1999
Title: Silent protagonist
of hijacking drama was behind merger of two fanatic bodies
Author: Observer Political
Bureau
Publication: The Observer
of Business and Politics
Date: December 29, 1999
Mohammad Masood Azhar,
the jailed Pakistani militant whose release is being sought by the hijackers
of the Indian Airlines plate had come to India in early 1994, on a Portuguese
passport supplied by a Pakistani national based at the United Kingdom.
Azhar was involved in recruiting Kashmiri youths for arms training and
subversive activities in the Valley.
Azhar alias "Veil Adam
Issa," the first secretary general of Harkat-Ul-Ansar (HUA), who was caught
on February 11, 1994, in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, was an
invaluable patch for the Indian intelligence agencies as he used to send
regular batches of Kashmiri youths to Pakistan and Afghanistan for arms
training.
As per records of his
interrogation, Azhar had played a key role in the merger of Harkat-Ul-Mujahedeen
and Harkat-Ul-Jehad-E-Islamia to set up HUA in June 1993, with Maulana
Sahadatullah as its chief and Maulana Abdul Jabber as commander of its
"military" wing based in Khost city of Afghanistan.
He also played a major
role in lobbying to bring back Pakistani Peace-Keeping Forces from Somalia
in November 1993.
The Portuguese passport
on which he arrived in Delhi from Dhaka in February 1994 was supplied to
him by a UK-based Pakistani, identified as Hafiz. The passport had visas
of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan stamped on it.
The purpose of his visit
to India in January 1994 was to revive the dying militancy in Kashmir valley,
for which he held meetings with several commanders of HUA in the state
and in different places in Utter Pradesh.
In November 1993, Azhar
went to Kenya at the behest of Pakistani authorities to assure Somalian
Muslims that Islamabad would withdraw its troops from the United Nations
Peace-Keeping Force and urged them to continue their "Jehad" (armed crusade).
Azhar was accompanied
in this mission by three senior Pakistani journalists - Mujeebur Rehman
Shanai, Altaf Hussain Quereshi and Mustafa Sadiq.
This piece of information,
revealed during interrogation, also gave security agencies relevant inputs
about his importance and high connections with those at the helm of affairs
in Pakistan.
He has played a key role
in raising funds amounting to crore of rupees for carrying out subversive
activities against India allegedly from countries like Saudi Arabia, Zambia,
Kenya and other Islamic nations.
Prior to his arrest in
southern Kashmir district of Anantnag, Azhar had addressed meetings of
groups of HUA militants not only in the state, but also in Utter Pradesh
and some other neighbouring states.
After having flown in
from the Bangladesh capital, Azhar had stayed in Delhi for 12 days during
which he travelled to Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Saharanpur and Jalalabad
in UP holding group meetings.
Security agencies said
that his visits to various cities in UP were followed by communal riots
in Kanpur and Varanasi "which may not be a mere coincidence."
In Delhi, he was contacted
by several top-ranking militant leaders including Mufti Abu Mehmood, HUA
chief in Jammu region and Abu Saeed, right hand man of Sajjad Afghani,
a mercenary who had played a key role in burning down Chrar-E-Sharif shrine
along with Mast Gul.
After reaching Srinagar
from Delhi on February 9, 1994, he left for Anantnag by car along with
Sajjad Afghani and a local resident. During a routine search by army, Azhar
and Sajjad were arrested while the local fled.
A bachelor, Azhar has
five brothers, six sisters and his aged parents. His father, Allah Baksh,
is a retired school master in Wahbalpur in Punjab province of Pakistan.
He has studied till eighth standard and has also undergone rigorous nine
years of Islamic education.
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