Yusuf Azhar: IC 814 mastermind killed on May 7 strike in Bahawalpur

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) Yusuf Azhar, one of the five terrorists killed when India struck the Jaish-e-Mohammed's headquarters in Bahawalpur, was terror group chief Masood Azhar's brother-in-law and one of the masterminds of the IC-814 hijacking in 1999, officials said.

Yusuf, who was in his late 50s, had sneaked into India the year before hijacking in 1998 based on a fake passport arranged by his point person Abdul Latif, the officials said.

Yusuf had an Interpol Red Notice against him. In 2002, India gave his name to Pakistan as a wanted terrorist.

He was also a designated terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and wanted for the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar in December 1999. It ended with India releasing JeM founder Masood Azhar and two other terrorists, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, in exchange for passengers and crew.

Officials said he made plans several times to free Masood Azhar from Jammu jail. In 1999, he travelled to Dhaka with Latif and was joined by Masood Azhar's brothers Abdul Rauf and Ibrahim Athar at various points. Rauf arranged posh accommodation in Dhaka's cantonment, officials said.

Athar had spent considerable time in Kathmandu and came with the idea of hijacking an Indian Airlines flight after noticing vulnerabilities in the airport's security setup. Rauf also had a blueprint from the Harkat Ul Mujahideen to hijack a flight and demand the release of Masood Azhar and other terrorists in return.

On December 24, 1999, flight IC-814 on the way from Kathmandu to Delhi with 179 passengers and 11 crew members onboard was hijacked by five Pakistani terrorists -- Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim and Shakir.

It was taken to Kandahar, after brief stops in Amritsar, Lahore and Abu Dhabi, where it was held till December 31, 1999. Twenty-six years later, the Yusuf Azhar story came to an end.

The JeM's Bahawalpur seminary was cleared days ahead of the Indian strikes, which came on the morning of May 7 as retaliation for the Pahalgam massacre in which terrorists killed 26 people.

Yusuf Azhar was among the five top terrorists identified to have been killed in the strikes also targeting the Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Muridke. The others were Mudassar Khadian Khas alias Abu Jundal and Khalid alias Abu Akasha (LeT), Hafiz Muhammed Jameel and Mohammad Hassan Khan (JeM).

Sources said Masood Azhar's family members, including his sister and brother-in-law, Yusuf, were still staying at the Bahawalpur facility, Markaz Subhanallah, when the precision strikes happened. Masood Azhar has acknowledged that 10 members of his family and four close associates were killed in the missile attack on the outfit's headquarters in Bahawalpur.

The Pulwama terror strike of February 2019, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, was planned at this camp, the officials said. PTI ABS SKL SKL MIN MIN