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Pakistani diplomat Mohammed Arshad Cheema who was caught with 16 kg of RDX in Nepal was also involved in the hijacking of Indian Airlines airbus IC 814 in December 1999, home ministry sources said here on Thursday.
The first secretary at the Pakistani Embassy in Nepal, Mohamad Arshad, was caught with explosives Thursday in a bungalow in Baneshwor near downtown Kathmandu after the Nepales police raided the house.
Home ministry sources here expressed satisfaction on their long standing claim based on intelligence input that Nepal is the hot-bed of ISI operation got upheld with the red-handed arrest of a Pakistani diplomat there with 16 kgs of RDX.
Sources told 'The Times of India' that intelligence agencies had a opened dossiers on suspected ISI agents and their activities long before the hijacking of the Indian Airlines IC 814.
According to intelligence inputs, on December 24, 1999, a vehicle from the Pakistan embassy had driven to Tribhuvan Airport, Kandhmandu carrying Pakistani first secretary Mohammed Arshad Cheema, his assistant Zia Ansari and a
Nepali Muslim, Abdul Rias Khan, two airport officials noted down their registration number.
Officials had also noticed that the first secretary had a briefcase. They walked into the departure lounge unchecked using their diplomatic immunity clearance. One of the Pakistani officials handed over the briefcase to the hijacker. Two Nepali airport staff officers had said that Cheema did not have the briefcase when he returned from the airport.
This is not the first time Cheema, an ISI man in the Pakistan embassy in Kathmandu, was found involved in such activities, sources said. He was also suspected to be actively involved in the supply of counterfeit Indian currencies of Rs 500 denominations. Again in October 1998, Yakeer Singh, a Sikh militant who was arrested in Kathmandu with 20 kg of RDX, confessed that Cheema had handed him the packet, sources said.
On December 24, 1999 when the Indian airlines was hijacked, intelligence gatherers had reported that five Pakistani nationals walked straight out from the Pakistan International Airlines aircraft into an Indian Airlines Airbus sitting on the tarmac. After the hijackers took control of the plane, with 178 passengers and 11 crew abroad it was commandeered in a zig zag trip to the Middle East and back and finally to Kandahar in Afghanista. A 25 year old Rippan Katyal a newly married boy was ruthlessly killed by the hijackers in the presence of his helpless wife.
There were six hijacker aboard the plane, four were Pakistanis, one Nepalese and one from Afghanistan. The hijackers demanded the release of Pakistani Islamic cleric Maulana Masood Azhar who has been a high security jail since 1994 and a number of other militants.
In the aftermath of the hijacking the Indo-Nepali ties were severely strained because Nepal refused to accept any responsibility. Nepal also refused to acknowledge or crackdown on the ISI, which were flourishing in their country. However after New Delhi imposed travel restrictions on Indian travelling there, Nepal quickly towed the line to prevent their tourist economy from collapsing.
Security was markedly improved at all Nepalese airport and the army came down hard on the ISI. A few Pakistani embassy officials were quietly expelled. Indian Civil Aviation underwent several security upgrades. Indian aircraft now carry security air marshalls to prevent any such hijacking.
However despite an international
uproar on the hijacking and Pakistan coming in for criticism for its abetment
in the crime based on irrefutable evidence, Pakistan refuses to hand over
the hijackers. They claim the hijackers have committed no crime and broken
no Pakistani laws. One of the released militants Masood Azhar roams freely
in Pakistan and has even formed a militant group.
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