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Interpol sounds red alert against five hijackers of IA plane

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday said that a red alert had been issued against the five hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane (in December last) and two of their accomplices.

The agency had already approached the Interpol for issuance of a 'Red Corner' notice against the five hijackers - Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhtar Sayed and Shakir - and two accomplices Yusuf Azhar and Abdul Rauf, agency sources said.

Yusuf Azhar and Abdul Rauf are believed to be key conspirators behind the hijacking of the plane from Kathmandu to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on December 24.

The sources said the Interpol had alerted airports, ports and major railway stations about the hijackers and their accomplices.

However, the sources said there was little hope of catching them even after the issuance of a Red Corner notice against the seven people as several countries did not comply with the warrant from the international organisation.

The sources said despite a resolution to make mandatory warrants of the Interpol at its annual 1997 conference, held in New Delhi, several countries were yet to ratify it to make an appropriate law.

The CBI on June 21 filed a chargesheet against 10 people in the hijacking case, which included these seven and three Indian nationals. The Indian authorities had also made a formal request to the Pakistani government for extradition of five hijackers and two of their accomplices responsible for hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane.

The requests have been made under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the Hague agreements under which Pakistan is obliged to extradite them, CBI sources said.

The CBI, which had approached the Pakistani authorities through the ministry of external affairs about the extradition of five persons, has, however, not yet received any response from the Pakistani authorities.

The three Indian nationals chargesheeted are Abdul Latif alias Patel, Bhupalmar Damai alias Yusuf Nepali and Dilip Kumar Bhujel, the agency sources said and claimed that all the three had confessed to their involvement in the case.

All the three are in CBI custody while the other seven are absconding and believed to be in Pakistan.

The sources said the agency was also probing a mysterious call made to Amritsar airport when the plane had landed there briefly on December 24 before flying to Lahore in Pakistan.

The caller identifying himself as a joint secretary in the ministry of home affairs had ordered the airport authorities to allow the plane to take off.

They said it was difficult to trace the caller as there was no record available with the Amritsar telephone department as to where the call had been made from.

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