Pak govt continues to ignore India plea for IC-814 hijackers

Ten years after the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane, Pakistan is yet to respond to formal requests made by India for extradition of the five hijackers and two of their accomplices.
     
The Pakistan authorities, with whom formal requests were made in May 2000, has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of five hijackers -- Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhter Sayed and Shakir-- and two accomplices Yusuf Azhar and Abdul Rauf -- in their country.

The extradition requests were made under the SAARC and the Hague conventions under which Pakistan has the obligation to honour them, CBI sources said today.

The sources said reminders were even being constantly sent to Islamabad besides getting the Interpol involved to ensure the execution of the Red Corner notice. But there seems to be no progress on this front in that country.
     
While Athar is a resident of Bhawalpur, other four hijackers and two accomplices are residents of the port city of Karachi.

The two accomplices--Abdul Rauf and Yusuf Azhar--are brother and brother-in-law respectively of Maulana Masood Azhar, one of the three militants released in exchange for the hostages on December 31, 1999, a week after the crisis began on Christmas eve on December 24.