M A I N   N E W S

J-K cops arrest top hawala operator
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria & Arteev Sharma/TNS

Jammu, September 13
Almost 13 years after the Kandahar plane hijack, the J&K Police claimed to have arrested a key accused, who is believed to have provided logistic support to the hijackers.

Mehraj-ud-Din Dand, aka Javed, is a native of Sopore in North Kashmir, and is described by the state police as a “big shark.” He is the longest surviving terrorist since militancy began in the late eighties, sources said.

Dand is suspected to have facilitated the entry of five masked men into the aircraft with guns, knives and grenades and arranged the finances through hawala channels, said Inspector General of Police (Jammu zone) Dilbag Singh.

Dand was brought from Nepal via Gorakhpur by train a couple of days back before being shown arrested near Kishtwar last night, said a top source. He is believed to have provided logistic support to the five Pakistani militants who hijacked Indian Airlines’ flight IC-814 on December 24, 1999. The flight from Kathmandu was forced to land at three different airports -- Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai - before being taken to Kandahar, the bastion of then 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.

Dand is believed to be a close aide of United Jehad Council chief Syed Salahuddin and also has links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. “He provided logistic support in the IC-814 hijack. We suspect he had also been involved in several blasts across the country, including one at Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar in 1996”, said DIG Doda-Kishtwar-Ramban range, Garib Dass.

“On the basis of available information, Dand made arrangements for the hijackers and provided fake travel documents to the five Pakistani men,” said Dass.

Sources said Dand worked for several years for the IC-814 hijack accused Arshad Cheema, a Pakistani diplomat based in Kathmandu.

IGP Dilbag Singh said Dand sent ammunition and hawala money to India for fuelling insurgency via diplomatic channels of a specific country.

Dand had been living in Nepal with a Hindu name for many years and married a Hindu girl there, said the DIG. “We had specific information about his movement,” said the DIG. Dand is believed to be a key man of the ISI. “His arrest has certainly delivered a major setback to various terror outfits and will have an impact on the security scenario, said Dass.

He acted as an “ISI launcher” in Nepal where he received his contacts from Pakistan and sent them to India.

(With inputs by RK Kichlu from Batote)