Kandahar: MEA sends US list of demands

With the IC-814 hijack case trial at the penultimate stage in a Patiala court, India is stepping up diplomatic pressure on the US to help in...

With the IC-814 hijack case trial at the penultimate stage in a Patiala court, India is stepping up diplomatic pressure on the US to help in solving the ‘‘larger conspiracy’’ behind the passengers-for-militant swap.

This follows the FBI registering its own criminal case as one of its citizens, Jenne Moore, was on the Indian Airlines flight that took off from Kathmandu and was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan on December 24, 1999.

The Ministry of External Affairs has dispatched a ‘‘non-paper’’ to Geoff R Pyatt, Political Affairs Counseller in the US Embassy here, asking for an ‘‘urgent US response’’ to seven pending requests sent in connection with the case.

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India has pointed out that the CBI had provided all possible assistance to the eight FBI teams that visited India for investigations in the case. Besides, details of India’s probe into the 1994 and 1995 kidnappings in J-K that led to the release of Maulana Masood Azhar have also been shared with the FBI.

Here are some of the requests listed by the MEA:

• Details of the reported seizure of documents relating to the hijack by US troops operating in Afghanistan, evidence on the flight’s landing in Kandahar and the role of Taliban authorities.

• Responses from Mansoor Akhtar, former Taliban minister, and Akhtar Usmani, Taliban Corps Commander or other Taliban functionaries who are reportedly in US custody.

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• Information on the location and hideouts of seven Pakistani nationals said to be involved in the hijack—and details on the conduct of these men before and after the hijack.

• Copies of photographs that might be available with US authorities on Abdul Rauf, an accused and key conspirator in the case.

• Any ‘‘additional’’ information relating to the hijack

While US assistance in the case has been taken up at the highest levels—once by then deputy prime minister L K Advani during a US visit—the FBI has only indicated that they don’t have enough evidence to link the freed militants with the hijack.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More

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