The Hindu : 'Ansari may shed light on IA hijack'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 17, 2002

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'Ansari may shed light on IA hijack'
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 16. After several sessions of grilling Aftab Ansari over the past week, the prime accused in the American Center attack last month in Kolkata, the CBI sources believe that he could be a key link in completely unravelling the conspiratorial aspects of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines IC-814 plane from Kathmandu to Kandahar in December 1999.

Sources familiar with the interrogation of Ansari say that Omar Sheikh, Abdul Rauf, and Yusuf Azhar, brother of Maulana Masood Azhar, were in regular touch with Ansari in Pakistan. Ansari had shifted base to Pakistan after the IC-814 hijack and with the financial help from agencies in Pakistan set up a business in Dubai.

CBI officials are also probing whether Omar Sheikh, lodged in the Tihar Jail in Delhi, was at all aware of the plot to hijack the IC-814 and demand his release. With Ansari's disclosures certain to shed new light on some of the crucial aspects of the hijack, he was also quizzed by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the CBI probing the case.

As fresh evidence comes up against Omar Sheikh, now in focus in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping case and in police custody in Pakistan, sources did not rule out a move to seek his extradition to India. Interestingly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also registered a case on the plane hijack as one of the passengers was an American.

The fresh evidence would also be brought to the notice of the FBI, sources said.

Ansari has also informed the investigators about the five hijackers - Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhter and Shakir - and their contacts with Omar Sheikh, sources added.

As Ansari happens to be one who has spent a considerable time in Pakistan, CBI officials appear keen to collect more information about his interaction with terrorist outfits in Pakistan and their links and associates in India.

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