Kandahar hijack suspect arrested in Kashmir

Mehraj-ud-din Dand, a militant wanted for his involvement in the hijacking of flight IC-814 flight to Kandahar and other terror attacks, has been arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police, a senior police official said Thursday.

The militant, suspected to be involved in many militancy related incidents in India and abroad, was arrested from an undisclosed location on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on Wednesday night, the official said.

On Dec 24, 1999, IC-814, with 176 passengers on board, was hijacked by five Pakistani militants and forced to land in three different airports — Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai – before being taken to Kandahar, the bastion of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In Dubai, Rupin Katyal, one of the passengers, was fatally stabbed by the hijackers.

The aircraft had to spend a week on the tarmac in Kandahar before terrorists were swapped for the hostages.

The police say Dand is suspected to be a key man of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and an important fund raiser for terror activities.

He is believed to have been among the first group of Hizbul Mujahideen that crossed over into Pakistan for training and is said to be the longest surviving militant in the state.

Dand is also believed to have been a key lieutenant of Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin for many years before becoming an independent operative who coordinated between various terror groups, the police said.


(EKNN)