Maulana talks to his supporters from a mosque in Karachi

Maulana talks to his supporters from a mosque in Karachi
ASSOCIATED PRESS

KARACHI, JAN 6: All three Kashmiri militants freed by India to end the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan and the five hijackers were last seen on the road from Kandahar heading towards this country, one of the freed militants, said here today.Maulana Masood Azhar, who surfaced here last night, said that all three men (militants) had crossed together into Pakistan.

"The hijackers said you do not know us. We have never met. We are from India....," Azhar told reporters, providing the first eyewitness account of what happened after the window-blackened vehicle carrying the five hijackers and three freed militants roared out of Kandahar airport on December 31.

Their safe passage was part of the deal to end the hijacking. The hijackers parted company with the freed militants in Afghanistan. The hijackers remained with Azhar and his companions for 25 minutes in a vehicle that was heading in the direction of Pakistan. Then they stopped the vehicle, got out and got intoanother vehicle, said Azhar. It was also then that they freed their Taliban hostage, whom they had taken to guarantee their safe passage out of the airport. "They said, `we are returning to India but we can't travel with you. We will get there another way,'" recalled Azhar. Then they were gone. He refused to say in what direction the vehicle headed.

Azhar also addressed hundreds of people who had gathered outside a mosque in a Karachi suburb, but the public and media were not allowed to see him. ``I have come here to get people who want to take part in the jihad (holy war) for Kashmir and will continue my struggle...And all Muslims should join the jihad for the people of Kashmir, Bosnia and Chechnya,'' he said over loudspeakers from inside the mosque.

Pakistan said its border security had been put on alert, but Azhar said there was no attempt by border police to stop his vehicle.

"I am a Pakistani citizen who has done nothing wrong. There is no reason to stop me," said Azhar. He parted company with thetwo other freed militants after crossing into Pakistan. He said he didn't know where either was headed.

Another freed militant Mushtaque Ahmed Zargar surfaced in Muzzafarbad in Pak-occupied Kashmir. The whereabouts of the third freed militant Ahmed Umar Sayeed Sheikh, a Pakistani-born British citizen was not known.