IC-814 hijack: CBI to crack down on ISI’s Taliban link

CBI will soon send a second team to Afghanistan to question Taliban leader General Usmani in connection with the hijacking of an Indian Airl...

CBI will soon send a second team to Afghanistan to question Taliban leader General Usmani in connection with the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999.

The move comes after former foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told the CBI that Usmani would be able to throw more light on the entire IC-814 hijacking episode, CBI sources said.

They said some more senior Taliban leaders would be questioned and a request is being made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as they are in its custody after the US-led alliance ousted the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.

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Intelligence reports said Gen Usmani was the liaison officer between ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency, and Taliban. His questioning is said to be crucial as he probably knew the ISI officials present at the Kandahar airport.

The CBI has also been trying to lay its hands on the voice recorder of the Air Traffic Control of Kandahar as the agency suspects that all the information and directions were coming from Pakistan.

The sources said information has been sought from FBI about some of the militant leaders of Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen who were present at Kandahar airport after the plane landed on December 25, 1999, a day after it was hijacked during its flight from Kathmandu to Delhi.

CBI is also attempting to get Muttawakil here for a detailed questioning. The sources also confirmed that Abdul Lateef, an accused

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arrested by the investigation agency in the hijacking case, has confessed about Harkat’s role in the hijacking.