Author: Himanshu Jain
Publication: Vijayvaani.com
Date: December 15, 2008
URL: http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=287
Azhar Masood is the villain of several large
attacks on Indian soil. These include the first suicide (fidayeen) attack
in Srinagar, the attack on Parliament, and the 26 November massacre in Mumbai.
Azhar Masood was freed by the NDA government in exchange for 166 lives in
the IC-814 hijack.
Azhar Masood was arrested in 1994 for entering
India on a forged passport. From 1994 to his release on 31 December 1999,
he was tried in Indian courts, and lodged variously in the Tihar Jail and
the Srinagar Central Jail.
In these five years in Indian custody, his
associates tried strenuously to get him freed. There was a gruesome kidnapping
of foreign tourists, an attempted jail break, a letter from the Pakistan Interior
Minister calling him a journalist and seeking his release, and finally the
IC-814 hijacking.
India is a democratic state with a proper
judicial system and laws. Azhar could not be hanged for entering India on
a forged passport and meeting separatists in Kashmir. He could only be tried
in court and jailed for illegal acts according to Indian laws. Police and
army officers who understand the magnitude of the problem these terrorists
can create often shoot them without bringing them to trial. Sadly, most such
officers are today being prosecuted for alleged human rights violations.
Indian Airlines flight IC-814 took off from
Kathmandu at 1615 IST on 24 December 1999, and was hijacked. Lahore airport
authorities refused it permission to land, forcing it to head back to Amritsar,
India. At Amritsar, the hijackers demanded that the aircraft be refueled.
The airport was sealed off, but the plane was not incapacitated.
After 25 minutes, the hijackers forced the
plane to takeoff by killing passenger Rupin Katyal, and headed for Lahore
with just enough fuel for the trip. India persuaded Pakistan to permit the
aircraft to land. The aircraft nearly crash-landed and was surrounded by Pakistani
commandos. It was refueled and allowed to move towards Kabul, but on account
of the lack of night-landing facilities there, and later at Kandahar, the
plane was diverted towards Dubai.
The hijackers demanded food, medicines and
a step-ladder as none was available. UAE officials agreed to negotiate if
women and children were allowed to disembark. The hijackers released 25 passengers
and allowed the body of Mr. Katyal to be released to the UAE authorities.
Early on 25 December 1999, the flight took off from Dubai for Afghanistan,
and landed at Kandahar at 0855 hours. The passengers were finally released
on 31 December 1999 after the Government of India released three terrorists.
Afghanistan was then a terrorist state. The
Twin Towers tragedy had not happened then and the world had not woken up to
the terror posed by these Islamic jihadis and the true condition of Afghanistan.
India was alone in its confrontation with terror. Thus, in a hostile territory
with enemy surrounding the plane, the then NDA government decided to release
Azhar Masood and two other terrorists to save 166 lives on board the flight.
The first aim of a government is to save the
maximum lives in such a situation. There was no precedent in India before
this event to allow 166 innocent citizens to be killed to retain three terrorists.
India would not have been able to bear it. Today we know that the release
has harmed us so grievously, but few could then have imagined the consequences
of releasing Azhar Masood.
In 1989, the somewhat shadowy kidnapping of
Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, then Union Home Minister
in the V.P. Singh regime, took place and the kidnappers demanded the release
of five comrades in exchange for Rubaiya. The government accepted their demands
and freed the jailed terrorists.
The NDA government in 1999 was mandated by
all political parties including Congress, the main opposition party, to do
what was necessary to save the hostages. But in the 2004 general elections,
Ms. Sonia Gandhi made it a major political issue and Congressmen even today
blame NDA for this lapse.
Azhar Masood's human rights were not violated
In India. He entered the country illegally, was detained, and had enough time
and guile to get out of jail and kill Indians by the hundreds after his release.
The story of Azhar's evolution from clergyman and teacher in a Karachi madrasa
to an international jihadi leader began in Bahawalpur where he was born on
10 July 1968.
In his book, The Virtues of Jihad, Azhar revealed
that his father had Deobandi leanings and was extremely religious: "One
of my father's friends, Mufti Sayeed, was working as a teacher at the Jamia
Islamia at the Binori Mosque in Karachi. He prevailed upon my father to admit
me in the Jamia."
Azhar's Kashmir trip was primarily a brief
assignment. The Harkat had been divided into Harkat-e-Jihadi Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
and he was sent to affect a patch up. The Harkat factions did merge subsequently,
but Azhar was nabbed in the Valley along with another top commander, Sajjad
Afghani.
Incidentally, his entry into India was dramatic
- unlike most militants he did not cross the Line of Control in Kashmir. In
January 1994, he flew into Delhi from Dhaka as a Gujarat-born Portuguese national,
Wali Adam Issa. He checked into Ashoka Hotel and later shifted to Janpath
Hotel, from where he left for Deoband with two Harkat men from Kashmir. He
flew to Srinagar and met the Harkat's top commanders, Sajjad Afghani and Amjad
Bilal, in the Lal Bazaar area of downtown Srinagar.
On 10 February 1994, Azhar was arrested by
security forces along with Afghani at Khanabal. He told his interrogators:
"we fight for religion and do not believe in the concept of nation-state."
During captivity, Azhar told his interlocutors: "Soldiers of Islam belonging
to twelve countries have infiltrated into India to liberate Kashmir. We fight
for religion and do not believe in the concept of nation-states. We want Islam
to rule the world."
On 19 June 1996, Pakistan's Minister for Interiors
and Narcotics Control, Maj-Gen (retd.) Nasrullah Khan Babbar, in a letter
to India's External Affairs Ministry [D.O No. 1/10/96-IM] requested the release
of Azhar Masood on humanitarian grounds. The latter was referred to as a journalist
who had entered India to see the condition of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Harkat made several unsuccessful attempts
to get Azhar and Afghani out of jail. Two British nationals were kidnapped
on 6 June 1994 at Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir. Another group comprising
three British and an American national was abducted in Delhi in September
the same year. Six foreign tourists, including two American nationals, were
kidnapped again at Pahalgam in July 1995.
One of the hostages, John Childs (an American)
escaped, but a Norwegian national was beheaded by the Harkat and four others,
including an American, are missing to this day. The kidnappers of the six
western trekkers in south Kashmir - a mysterious Al-Faran, believed to be
a front for the Harkat - had demanded the release of Azhar and Afghani. An
attempted jailbreak was foiled, but Afghani was killed by the police later,
allegedly in a jail uprising.
It is pertinent to ask if such a sensitive
and highly prized (by the terrorists) prisoner should have been executed before
further attempts to release him were made. Perhaps the tragedy of IC-814 would
not have happened at all. Sadly, India cares more for abstract human rights
as opposed to the rights of living citizens.
Maulana Masood Azhar was released from jail
on 31 December 1999 as part of the hostage swap and provided safe passage
to Pakistan. The ringleader of the hijacking was his brother Ibrahim Athar.At
that time, the NDA government had two options - to send in commandos, which
was not possible in rouge Afghanistan; or to negotiate and risk letting 166
hostages perish. Mr. Vajpayee saved 166 lives in a ticklish situation and
today India should not politick about it.
