NEW DELHI: This was one "goodwill gesture" which spectacularly boomeranged on the UPA government. This is the second LR sent by NIA to Pakistan in the last five months seeking assistance. Apart from Latif, Kashif Jaan and Abdul Rauf (Masood Azhar's brother) have been identified as co-planners of the attack. However, the then Vajpayee government had refused to release Latif and 31 others on Jaish's "wish list".Latif acts as main handler of JeM terrorists in IndiaIn 1999, the NDA government freed Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar and Omar Sheikh, an alumnus of London School of Economics who courted further notoriety by kidnapping and killing American journalist Daniel Pearl.The AI hijack plot was conceived and executed with the support of ISI. They were lodged in jails in Jammu, Srinagar, Agra, Varanasi, Naini (UP) and Tihar, and were deported to Pakistan through Wagah.Interestingly, Latif's release was sought by the same Jaish terrorists who had hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 and managed to get their chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, freed along with two others in exchange for 154 passengers in December 1999.

Source: Times of India May 16, 2016 15:07 UTC