"Pakistan Uncovers Plot to Hijack Plane"

Thursday, May 6, 2004

Pakistani Arrested in Hijack Plot
By MUNIR AHMAD
The Associated Press
 
  
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Crew members detained a Pakistani national
who tried to enter the cockpit of a plane traveling to Pakistan from the
United Arab Emirates on Thursday, a day after the prime minister
revealed a hijacking plot against commercial flights on the route,
officials said.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said crew members arrested one
Pakistani man on a flight from Dubai to Islamabad, but could not confirm
whether the man was intending to hijack the plane.

"The man told investigators that he wanted to tell the pilot he should
increase the speed of the plane as it was going too slow," Ahmed told
The Associated Press. He said authorities were still investigating.

An intelligence official in the southern city of Karachi said on
condition of anonymity that the man was unarmed and was overpowered by
crew members on Aeroasia flight E4553, which landed safely in Islamabad.

The man was handed over to the Airport Security Force there and was
being questioned, the official said.
  
The arrest came a day after the Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali
revealed that Pakistani intelligence agents had uncovered a plot by a
small band of terrorists to hijack and possibly blow up a plane bound
for the UAE from Pakistan. The threat prompted Pakistan to put its
airports on "red alert."

Jamali told AP that authorities believe there was a group of about four
to six people who wanted to hijack a plane.

There was no indication when the plot was due to be carried out or if it
involved al-Qaida. Jamali would not speculate on whether the hijackers
were Pakistanis or foreigners.

A senior official at Pakistan's intelligence agency said Wednesday
authorities are not sure who the men are.

"If we had their names and nationalities or other information about
their whereabouts, they would have been arrested already," he said on
condition of anonymity.

Details of the plot emerged late Wednesday, a day after Pakistan
announced it was beefing up security at 35 airports nationwide. Access
to airport facilities has been severely restricted, extra security
checks are being made on all domestic and international passengers and
more security personnel have been assigned to the airports, said Maj.
Mohammed Riaz, assistant director of intelligence for the Pakistan
Airport Security Force.

"We got the information from our intelligence network, not from a
threatening phone call or letter," Riaz said. "We don't know what group
it is. We can't say whether it is al-Qaida."

The threat prompted three airlines to request sky marshals for their
flights from Pakistan to the UAE, an intelligence official said on
condition of anonymity Thursday in the southern city of Karachi. He
would not name the airlines.

Airlines in Pakistani said flights to the UAE were operating as normal.

The United Arab Emirates is the main financial hub of the Arab world.
Dubai is also a regional transit hub and there are about 20 flights a
day from the Pakistani cities of Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. PIA,
Emirates airlines, Gulf Air, Malaysian Air and Aeroasia fly to the
Emirates from Pakistan.

In March, the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai
briefly shut their doors after receiving a "specific threat," though
there was no indication it was connected to the recent Pakistani alert.

Pakistan has been beset by a string of terror attacks since President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf threw his support behind the United States' war on
terror following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Musharraf himself survived two suicide attacks in December, and dozens
have been killed in attacks on foreigners and minority Christians. The
president blamed the assassination attempts on al-Qaida.


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