Detained Jaish man tells plane hijack story
Detained Billal, a suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative, has admitted that he made a safe passage for several militants, who were involved in 1999 Indian plane hijacking, to India from Bangladesh.
"Nannu Mia alias Belal Mandal alias Billal told us during interrogation that he helped enter such 12-13 militants to India from Bangladesh. He knows one Abdur Rahman among them," said an interrogator who quizzed Billal at the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) cell.
In December 1999, militants hijacked the Delhi-bound Indian Airlines plane (flight number-814) after it took off from Kathmandu. They forced the aircraft to land in Kandahar of the then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Rab arrested Rezwan Ahmed, a Pakistani national, Abu Naser Munshi, Imad Uddin alias Munna and Sadeque Hossain alias Khoka from a flat in Sukanya Tower near Dhaka College on Sunday while Billal from Gausia Market area.
Four local militant suspects--Billal, Naser, Munna and Khoka--were produced before a Dhaka court on Thursday on completion of their three-day remand. Motlubur Rahman, investigation officer (IO) of the case filed against them, told the court that the four are the members of banned militant organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh and have links with Pakistan based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
IO Motlubur, also SI of New Market Police Station, pleaded the court to confine the four to jail for further quizzing.
Billal also said he got introduced with Rezwan around seven to eight months back through another Pakistani national and suspected JeM militant Zawad.
"And he (Billal) again started working for Jaish-e-Mohammed for the last three months and have already received Tk 60,000 from Rezwan," said the investigator.
Rezwan who is still being quizzed at the TFI cell said he used to get the money from Zawad.
Billal also said that Zawad was known to him for quite a long time and he talked to Zawad in Pakistan around 100 times over his cellphone, said the interrogator.
Billal earlier told journalists that he was involved in hijacking the Indian plane while Pakistani national Rezwan admitted to have coordinate JeM activities in Bangladesh along with the three other suspected militants.
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