New Delhi:
Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim, one of the hijackers of the IC-814 Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Delhi in 1999, was shot dead in Karachi, Pakistan, government sources said. The Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist, who lived under the false identity of “Zahid Akhund” for years, was shot twice in the head on March 1 by unidentified gunmen at close range in Karachi’s Akhtar colony.
Mistry owned Crescent Furniture in the Akhtar Colony in Karachi. Rauf Asgar was reported to have joined Akhund’s funeral procession in Karachi. Rauf is the operational chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and brother of the founder of the terrorist organization Masood Azhar.
The Indian Airlines IC-814 plane, carrying 179 passengers and 11 crew members, was hijacked on December 24, 1999 by five terrorists from Nepal. The plane made a long arduous journey to Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai before making a strategic stop in Kandahar in Afghanistan, then under Taliban control.
The hijackers had executed one passenger, Rupin Katyal, and eventually negotiated the release of feared Islamist terrorists Masood Azhar Alvi, Syed Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar from Indian prisons on December 31, 1999, in exchange for the hostages.