Pak. calls hijack a 'farce'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 4. Pakistan today denounced the `hijack drama' in New Delhi in the early hours of Thursday calling it a `farce'. The episode proved its charge that the Indian establishment and media were bent on maligning Pakistan and the Kashmiri `freedom movement'.

A question on the hijack was to be raised at the press briefing of the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Mr. Riaz Mohammad Khan today and he promptly dubbed it as a `total farce'.

``We have noted and I am sure the whole world must have noted the enthusiasm with which the Indian media tried to malign Pakistan and the Kashmiri freedom movement,'' the spokesman said when asked whether India could be trusted not to resort to such `tricks' in the coming days to defame Islamabad.

In response to another question about alleged threats by Indian leaders to raid the militant camps in Pakistan the spokesman refereed to the September 19 speech of the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and said Pakistan was fully prepared to defend every inch of its territory including `Azad Kashmir' (Pak- occupied Kashmir). Commentaries on the state-run Pakistan Television alleged that the hijacking was a `drama' stage-managed by the Indian intelligence agencies to discredit Pakistan.

The incident proved right an alert sounded by Pakistani intelligence agencies on October 2 that India chalked out a plan to enact a hijack drama in order to project Pakistan in a bad light, PTV said.

Pakistan intelligence agencies predicted on October 2 that Indian intelligence agencies planned to hijack a plane of a big airline and bring it to Pakistan to get Islamabad declared a terrorist state, it said. On the expected lines, announcements were made in Delhi last night that the alleged hijackers wanted it to be flown to Lahore or Karachi airport. However, anticipating the move, the Pakistan Government had issued orders not to permit the plane to enter the Pakistani airspace.

The Pakistan Television report alleged that the `hijack drama' followed attempts by India to attribute the October 1 suicide bomb attack to Pakistan-based Islamic militant group, Jaish-e- Mohammad, though the jehad group had denied its involvement.

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Section  : International
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