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Hijacking was sponsored by

RAW: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: ISPR Director General Brig Rashid Qureshi has said it is certain that the hijacking of Indian airlines was sponsored by the Indian secret service RAW.

In an interview with BBC he said from the beginning Indians have repeatedly been saying that Pakistanis have sponsored this. Their objective is quite clear. This drama was aimed at holding Pakistan responsible for this and at projecting Pakistan as a terrorist country in the world.

He said at first the Indian external affairs minister start making such statements. And now Vajpayee, too, has made an identical statement which is absolutely baseless. There is no proof of it. It is only their verbal attempt to malign Pakistan.

To a question he said, "As a proof I present this thing that the list of passengers which the Indian airlines published, did not contain the name of any Pakistani and Kashmiri. So many hijackers, four or five, whatever their number might have been boarded the plane with so many heavy arms. How could it happen? Besides they also tried that this drama should be staged either at Lahore in Pakistan or in Afghanistan. They did not want this drama to be staged at Amritsar in Indian soil or at Dubai, because it did not serve their purpose".

To a question regarding the entry of hijackers into Pakistan, he said, this too is the Indian perception that hijackers and the released persons have entered in Pakistan. Nobody is saying this. How did India came to know this? He asked.

Commenting on the statement which the Indians are associating with Afghan information minister, he said, "The Afghan information minister did not tell us anything like this that they have gone to Pakistan".

To another question he said, "As we are habitual of speaking the truth, we don't know where hijackers are. Had we known it we would have certainly disclosed it. But how does India know? It means India is either following or has taken them, along with them to India in their plane".ÑAPP