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Hijacker Qureshi returns to India

Hashim Qureshi, who was one of the hijackers of an Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship plane in 1971, was taken into custody when he flew into India on Friday morning.

He was placed under arrest by the Delhi police, minutes after arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Denmark, where he had been for a decade.

He was produced before metropolitan magistrate Gulshan Kumar, and remanded to judicial custody till January 11, 2000.

The airport police, who produced Qureshi before the court, did not seek police remand.

Advocate for the accused Vikas Pahwa claimed that his client had been tried for offences listed against him in Pakistan and hence he could not be tried again for the same offences.

He also claimed that Qureshi had surrendered to the authorities, and he had not been arrested, as claimed by the Delhi police. There was no advocate present for the prosecution.

Qureshi was produced around 16:30 hours IST at the Patiala courts under security cover.

A police party from Srinagar led by S P Ramesh Jalla is in Delhi to take custody of Qureshi.

Hashim, his brother Ashraf Qureshi and three others had hijacked the plane when it was on flight from Srinagar to Jammu. They took the plane to Lahore, where they blew it up after letting passengers to alight.

Qureshi has been charged under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) for illegal confinement, kidnapping and robbery. He could not be charged under hijacking laws as there was none when the offence was committed.

Qureshi is a founder member of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and was only 17 when he hijacked the plane.

From downtown Nawahatta in Srinagar, Qureshi claimed that he underwent a jail term in Pakistan as he refused to be a puppet in the hands of the Pakistani intelligence outfit, the ISI. When IC 814 was hijacked last year, Qureshi had condemned the incident and called it criminal.

When rediff.com reported that Hashim was building up bridges with intelligence agencies, particularly the Research and Analysis Wing, he protested against the 'one-sided version' of the story. He regretted that some vested interests were trying to block the admission of his two daughters to a school in Shimla. In fact, Qureshi wrote a long letter to the editor, to project his point of view.

"Qureshi's entry into India comes when the Hurriyat Conference is claiming to be the sole representative of the wishes and aspirations of the people in the Valley. How much respect or credibility Qureshi commands in the Valley will be clear by the response of people in the next few days," said a senior Congress leader.

Qureshi has been taking a pro-India stand for several years and his presence in the Valley is bound the make an impact.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah was not very happy when asked if he would allow Qureshi to come back to the state. He is a murderer, Abdullah had told newsmen in August this year.

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