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Released militants will return to Kashmir

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The three dreaded militants released by the government yesterday in exchange of 160-odd Indian hostages are likely to get asylum either in Afghanistan or Pakistani after spending some time in another Islamic country, intelligence sources said.

A top-secret report prepared by the Research and Analysis Wing has indicated that people sympathetic to the hijackers' cause may get them refuge in Sudan, Nigeria or Saudi Arabia before they are provided asylum in Afghanistan or Pakistani.

''The three militants - Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Syed Sharief - will ultimately sneak into Kashmir,'' the report says.

The RAW report says the terrorists will ''cool off in one of these countries till the heat on the hijack of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 dies down.'' Thereafter, they will receive fresh training and indoctrination in an Afghan or Pakistani terrorist training camp before being sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir.

The MHA and the Ministry of Defence are also in possession of intelligence reports that say that about 150 Pakistani army regulars are trying to sneak into Indian territory.

''This is why the release of Azhar, Zargar and Sharief is worrisome...they were instrumental in bringing in foreign mercenaries and hardcore radicals into Jammu and Kashmir,'' officials pointed out.

NIGHTMARE ON FLIGHT 814
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