I started my career as a reporter 25 years ago. My first big assignment as a cub reporter covering courts was the Kandahar hijack. Apart from legal aspects, I was witness to the demonstrations held outside 7 RCR and at various other places by relatives and family members of passengers who were on the IC 814 plane. Most importantly, I also got a ringside view of the release of the three dreaded terrorists - Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
A recent trip to Kashmir to cover the assembly elections offered me an opportunity to revisit this story. This time, I was right at the place where the conflict's deepest roots lay. I managed to touch base with various officers and bureaucrats who, directly or behind the scenes, were involved in the release of the three terrorists. What all of them pointed out to me was the 'K-connection', that is, the hijackers' shortlist for the release of terrorists and their link with Kashmir. Two of the three terrorists - Maulana Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar - who were released by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government were lodged in the Kot Bhalwal jail on the outskirts of Jammu.
Arrested From An Auto
Officers in the Jammu & Kashmir police recall how Masood Azhar and Sajad Afghani were arrested from the Khanabal town in Anantnag district while they were in an auto. During a routine check, security personnel had asked the duo to stop the vehicles, but the two "passengers" panicked and started running. Officers at the army posts around the area managed to catch them, not realising at the time what a big arrest they had made.
Azhar was taken to Achabal camp from there. During his interrogation, he revealed how he had entered India on a fake Portuguese passport. Landing in Delhi, he proceeded to visit Deoband in Saharanpur (he followed the sect), and finally reached Srinagar on February 9, 1992. The primary purpose of his visit was to guide the youth of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Jehad-Islami to work together under the umbrella of Harkat-ul-Ansar.
However, luck was not on his side. Two days later, Azhar along with Sajjad Khan a.k.a Sajjad Afghani were arrested by police. There was a third 'passenger' with them in the auto, Farooq Ahmed, who had a wireless set on him. But he managed to escape.
Police officials told me that initially, Azhar was booked for travelling on fake documents and visa violations, while Afghani was tried for more heinous crimes, including terrorism. For the next seven-and-a-half years, the two stayed behind bars, being shifted from jail to jail.
"You Can't Keep Me In Jail"
Interestingly, one of the interrogators who used to visit Azhar regularly recalled later how he used to gloat often, "You won't be able to keep me in jail for long. You don't know how important I am to Pakistan and ISI." Another officer recounts how Afghani died in 1999 in a jail riot, while Azhar survived as he was "under a blanket in a barrack".
The same officer recounts how the hijackers who took control of IC 814 had initially demanded the release of more than three dozen terrorists lodged in various jails in India, as well as the corpse of Afghani buried in Kot Bhalwal.
When the story became interesting, I decided to touch base with some of my old contacts and also those who once acted as negotiators with the Taliban. They told me how during negotiations, the IC 814 hijackers had to be reminded of the fact that in Islam, once a body was buried, it was considered unholy to dig it out. This made them rethink their demand for the corpse of Afghani, but then they instead pressed for the "kafan", that is, the shroud his body was wrapped in. Ultimately, this was also ruled out.
A Long List Of Demands
Most interestingly, it was the Taliban that helped Indian negotiators trim down the list of terrorists that were to be released. "It was very interesting to see the choice of final three," recalls a senior officer who handled the counter-terror desk in the late 1990s. While Ahmed Omar Saeed and Azhar had a Pakistan connection, the third terrorist, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, a.k.a Latram in police files, was a Kashmiri. "This name was added to the list to maintain a hold on Kashmir. It was to make people here in the valley understand that Pakistan is not abandoning Kashmiris," an official explained to me.
Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, a.k.a 'Latram'
Hailing from Nowhatta, Latram was an intimidating figure in the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. Police officials remember how he would tie security personnel around electric polls and shoot them. In 1989, Zargar even created a terror organisation known as 'Al Umar Mujahideen'.
Meeting Latram
On my recent trip to Kashmir, I decided to visit Nowhatta again. Walking around, I remembered how 14 years back, the curious reporter in me had landed at the doorstep of Latram while doing a story on the reform and rehabilitation policy introduced by the then UPA government.
Those were the days when the valley was seeing the worst period of street violence. As many as 129 civilians were killed in stone pelting and related incidents. I managed to speak to Zargar's brother and mother on camera. Though the brother was a bit sceptical about the reform and rehabilitation policy, Zargar's mother wanted him to give up arms and come back. After finishing my interviews, I was on my way back to my hotel when my phone rang. I picked it up without realising it. Latram was on the other side. He wanted to know why I had gone to meet his family.
As a court reporter, I now also remember seeing bureaucrats lining up at Patiala House to get cases against Omar Saeed Shaikh dropped. He was lodged in Tihar jail at the time.
The Birth Of Jaish
"After the hijackers got custody of these three prisoners, they all went towards Pakistan and remained underground for more than a month," recalls an official. Finally, in February, Azhar resurfaced at the Jamia Aloom Islamia masjid in Karachi's Banwari Town. "He was a product of the same institution and was also its Vice-Chancellor," the official said.
A few other officials told me that Azhar wanted to form a new outfit - he planned to name it 'Lashkar-e Mohammadi' - which would act as an umbrella organisation for all other terror groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. But the plan did not materialise. Instead, the organisation he ultimately went on to helm was Jaish-e-Mohammad. Immediately after launching it, Azhar managed to mobilise people, inducting scores of ground workers and operatives from the Kashmir Valley. According to police records, about 150-odd terrorists operating in the region shifted base and joined Jaish.
The nation would see some of the deadliest terror attacks in Indian history in the years that followed. The attack on army headquarters in Srinagar's Badami Bagh in November 1999, the 2001 car bombing in the Jammu & Kashmir legislative assembly complex, and the Parliament attack in New Delhi just a month after that rocked the nation and underlined the growing influence of the Jaish.
Officials posted in Kashmir say the “Kandahar” factor is still alive in Kashmir.
(Neeta Sharma is Editor, Strategic and Security Affairs at NDTV India)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author