The IC 814 plane hijacking is one of the darkest chapters of Indian history. On 24th December 1999, IC 814, was en route from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. It was then hijacked by Pakistani terrorists and flown to several locations before landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The hostage crisis lasted for seven days and ended after India agreed to release three terrorists – Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Maulana Masood Azhar. Now, the IC 814 hijacking has come back to haunt India as its connections with the Pulwama terror attack emerge.
According to news agency IANS, Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists and their commanders in Pakistan had deposited Rs 10 lakh of Pakistani currency in the bank account of Mohammad Umar Farooq, son of IC 814 Indian Airlines hijacking case conspirator Ibrahim Athar, for carrying out the Pulwama terror attack.
The Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists & their commanders in #Pakistan had deposited Rs 10 lakh of Pakistani currency amount in the bank account of Mohammad Umar Farooq, son of IC 814 Indian Airlines hijacking case conspirator Ibrahim Athar, for carrying out the #Pulwama terror attack. pic.twitter.com/ViMauPr3ID
— IANS Tweets (@ians_india) August 27, 2020
These shocking revelations were made in the 13,500 page chargesheet that was filed by the NIA in the Pulwama terror attack case.
Further, the chargesheet revealed that Farooq, used Rs 5.7 lakh for Pulwama terror attack to buy Maruti Eco car, 200 kg of explosives and other logistic support.
According to IANS, a senior security official said, “An amount of PKR 10 lakh was deposited in the bank account of Farooq, who was killed in an encounter with Indian security forces in March 2019.”
Ibrahim Athar was the conspirator of the IC 814 hijacking. It now appears that Pakistan was using his terrorist son, Mohammad Umar Farooq to carry out the Pulwama terror attack in 2019 and arrange for the items required for the attack that claimed the lives of 40 Indian soldiers after a terrorist rammed an explosive-laden car into the soldiers’ convoy.