Pakistani cleric freed in Indian hijacking leaves for Afghanistan

MULTAN, Pakistan, Jan 21 (AFP) - A Pakistani cleric who was freed from an Indian jail to end the hijacking of an Indian Airlines jet has left for Afghanistan, his father Allah Bakhsh Sabir said Friday.

Maulana Masood Azhar, who was arrested in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1994, returned home early this month after New Delhi bowed to the demands of the five hijackers.

A day after getting married on January 17 at his home in Bahawalpur in central Pakistan, Azhar left for Afghanistan to meet with Mulla Mohammad Omar, the supreme leader of the ruling Taliban Islamic militia, Sabir told AFP.

Omar lives in Kandahar, the Taliban militia's headquarters in southern Afghanistan, where the hijacked plane and its passengers spent a week on the airport tarmac amid negotiations between the hijackers and the Indian government.

Before leaving for Afghanistan, Azhar met with leaders of some fundamentalist Islamic groups in Pakistan, his father said.

Azhar, who has links to a Kashmiri militant group, was one of three prisoners released in return for the 160 hostages held on board the jet in Kandahar.

He addressed a series of rallies in Bahawalpur after his return home, vowing to wage a holy war for the Kashimir separatist cause and against India.

The disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir has already sparked two wars between Pakistan and India since they won independence from the British.