Title: Arrested ISI
agent played key role in hijacking of IA plane
Author: DH News Service
Publication: Deccan
Heral
Date: April 27, 2000
In a breakthrough, the
North 24 Parganas district police here arrested an ISI agent, identified
as Abdul Jalil alias Bellal Miah from a village close to Bangladesh border,
on late Tuesday night.
He reportedly confessed
to having helped sneak into West Bengal one of the hijackers of the ill-fated
Indian Airlines flight to Kathmandu in December last.
Talking to newsmen here,
the Superintendent of Police, Mr Kuldeep Singh, said Abdul, an illiterate
Bangladeshi, who admitted to having taken three years` commando training
in Kashmir, had supplied 1.6 kg of RDX to the hijackers before they hijacked
the IA IC 814 flight to Kathmandu and had it force-land at Kandhahar airport
in Afghanistan.
''Abdul smuggled in the
RDX consignment through the Bangladesh border and it is just a sheer coincidence
that he could recognise Abdul Rehman, one of the five hijackers whose photos
were shown to him. This has first led us to stumble on the fact that Jalil
is part of a massive network of international hijacking gang,`` Mr Singh
said.
''Later, we found he
knows too many things about the hijackers``, Mr Singh remarked adding that
Jalil confessed to having helped Rehman sneak into Bengal through this
vulnerable border point. Jalil fell into the task force dragnet after he
slipped into the Indian territory. Police cordoned off the area before
arresting him.
Jalil will be produced
before the court at Basirhat sub-divisional judicial magistrate here tomorrow
for remand to police custody. Even though interrogation of Jalil is on
as some diaries in his possession revealed several phone numbers in Dhaka
and Mumbai, the SP indicated that he is believed to have widespread contacts
with the militant outfits in Kashmir and Assam as he had travelled in various
terrorist-infested parts of Assam apart from undergoing a three-year commando
training by the Pak-trained militants in the jungles of Kashmir, the SP
said.
Jalil had also gone to
Ludhiana and New Delhi where he met another ISI agent Abdullah who actually
took him to Kashmir for commando training. But during the training, he
escaped from Kashmir and returned here before taking shelter in the house
of one Swarup Gazi at Deganga, about 15 km from here.
In fact, the North 24
Parganas district police had earlier issued a non-bailable arrest warrant
against him in August last year for smuggling and being in possession of
1.6 kg of RDX in Talbagan, a village on the Indo- Bangladesh border.
According to Mr Singh,
the accused is apparently in possession of other information regarding
the ISI operations which he is not keen to disclose. It is the responsibility
of the Indian Government and central agencies to probe his connection with
the IA hijackers.
A special team comprising
sleuths from the CBI and intelligence branch is arriving at Calcutta tomorrow
to interrogate Jalil alias Bellal Miah, Mr Singh confirmed.
It is likely that Jalil`s
revelation to police will throw further light on the spreading ISI network
in the east and northeastern part of the country apart from his links with
the IA hijackers.
