'Pak rejected FBI, Interpol, CBI demands to nab Masood Azhar'

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'Pak rejected FBI, Interpol, CBI demands to nab Masood Azhar'

Press Trust of India

New Delhi, January 10
Repeated demands by US FBI, the Interpol and India's CBI to nab Masood Azhar, one of the three militants released by India in return for the release of hijacked passengers of Indian Airlines' flight IC-814 in 1999, has been rejected by Pakistan, a media report said.

"Nothing illustrates the clout Azhar used to enjoy more vividly than the Musharraf administration's decision to decline a request by the Interpol for taking him into custody. Interpol had been prompted to act at the behest of the US Department of Justice which wanted charges filed against him," the US-based South Asia Tribune, run by a Pakistani, said.

Though the presence of a US national aboard the hijacked IC-814 could have spelt trouble for Azhar, Islamabad "rejected the Interpol request for his custody on the grounds that he was not a hijacker and his incarceration in India had been illegal," the report said.

Azhar, a Pakistani national, was then heading the Harkat-ul Ansar.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1191167,0008.htm