India team for Dhaka, to grill IC-814 hijack suspect

India is sending a team of security officials to Dhaka to interrogate Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative Belal Mandal, who has allegedly confessed to having played a key role in the hijacking of Air India flight IC-814 in 1999, reports Aloke Tikku.

India is sending a team of security officials to Dhaka to interrogate Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative Belal Mandal, who has allegedly confessed to having played a key role in the hijacking of Air India flight IC-814 in 1999.

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Mandal was caught by the Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh’s anti-terror force, on Sunday with four other suspected JeM operatives — one a Pakistani national.

IC-814 was hijacked from Kathmandu to Kandahar, Afghanistan, on December 24, 1999. After seven days, the then NDA government released three militants, including Maulana Masood Azhar — who went on to found the JeM — in exchange for the hostages on board.

Home Ministry officials, who described Mandal as a “wanted man” in India in four terror-related cases — including the plan to plant bombs in Surat and Bangalore — however, said he didn’t figure in the list of suspects in the hijack case.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram said reports on Mandal’s role in the IC-814 hijack might be a bit “exaggerated”. A ministry official said: “His name did not come up during investigations by the CBI.”

“We should be able to get him if investigators in Bangladesh don’t want him for a crime committed there,” a government official said.

Mandal, from the north Bangladeshi town of Shylet, has an Indian wife from West Bengal.