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Captured 'mastermind' turns out to be hijackers' contact

Zakia Maryam in Bashirhat

Just hours after the West Bengal police claimed to have arrested the mastermind of the hijack of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, a senior police officer clarified that the man in question was actually a Bangladeshi national, not the Afghan hijacker they had thought him to be.

Addressing a press conference in Bashirhat, Superintendent of Police (North 24 Parganas district) Kuldip Singh said the arrested man was Abdul Jalil alias Bilal Bengal alias Bilal Mian.

"He [Jalil] has confessed to his contacts with militant organisations in Kashmir and Assam. He has also admitted to having visited Kashmir for training. He supplied RDX to subversive elements in India through the porous Indo-Bangladesh border. The special task force of the West Bengal police caught him late last night when he was trying to sneak into India," Singh said.

Singh's deputy Pravin Kumar had earlier in the day told rediff.com that the person arrested by the police was suspected to be one of the hijackers of Flight IC-814.

Singh clarified that Jalil had helped one of the hijackers, Abdur Rahman, to cross the Indo-Bangladesh border last year. "He even admitted to having supplied a huge cache of RDX to the hijackers. Moreover, he has confessed to working for the ISI and receiving instructions from its Bombay network," the officer said.

According to Singh, Jalil was arrested in connection with the seizure of a huge haul of RDX in Talbagan, Bashirhat, on August 15 last year. "It was mere coincidence that during interrogation he recognised the photo of Abdur Rahman shown to him by the police. That led us to believe he was part of the hijacking gang," Singh clarified.

Singh described Jalil as an illiterate Bangladeshi in his mid-twenties and hailing from Sylhet. He will be taken to the Bashirhat court on Thursday.

Singh added that a team comprising agents of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bureau, and Research and Analysis Wing from Delhi would arrive in Calcutta on Thursday and not today as was earlier stated.

Singh was optimistic that Jalil's arrest would help the police investigating the hijack of IC-814 to reach the real culprits because he is believed to know "too many things about the hijackers".

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