ZARGAR, released during 1999 hijacking, DESIGNATED AS TERRORIST

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ushtaq Ahmed Zargar, who was involved in a series of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and was one of the released terrorists in the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in 1999, has been designated as a terrorist by the Union government.

He is the fourth individual to have been designated as a terrorist by the Centre in the last one week.

In a notification, the Union Home Ministry said, Zargar alias Latram, 52, belongs to Nowhatta in Srinagar and is the founder and chief commander of terror group AlUmar-Mujahideen and had been affiliated with Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front.

4 terrorists killed in Shopian encounter

SRINAGAR: Four terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, while two army personnel lost their lives as their vehicle met with an accident on way to the site of the gunfight, officials said.

Security agencies to handle attacks on minorities: Min

SRINAGAR: Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said normalcy has returned to Kashmir under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and asserted the recent attacks on minorities in Kashmir will be handled by security agencies.

The Union minister said there were still some incidents of violence in Kashmir but such things are common to the entire country.

IC-814… WHAT HAPPENED

Indian Airlines Flight 814… IC 814, was en route from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to IGI Airport, Delhi on Friday, December 24, 1999, when it was hijacked and flown to several locations before landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The aircraft was piloted by 37year-old Captain Devi Sharan and first officer Rajinder Kumar, with 58-year-old flight engineer Anil Kumar Jaggia. The Airbus was hijacked by five masked terrorists shortly after it entered Indian airspace at about 17:30 IST. The hijackers ordered the aircraft to be flown to a series of locations: Amritsar, Lahore, and across the Persian Gulf to Dubai. The hijackers finally forced the aircraft to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan, which at the time was controlled by the Taliban. The hijackers released 27 of 176 passengers in Dubai but fatally stabbed one and wounded several others.

The motive for the hijacking apparently was to secure the release of terrorists held in prison in India. The hostage crisis lasted for seven days and ended after India agreed to release three terrorists – Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Masood Azhar. The three have since been implicated in other terrorist actions, such as the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl and the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.