U.S. Clears Pakistan in Hijacking

Tuesday, January 25, 2000 6:22 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton said Tuesday that there is no evidence Pakistan supported the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane last month.

However, the hijackers may have been linked to a terrorist group that operates in Kashmir -- a territory disputed by Pakistan and India -- according to the State Department.

The group, known as Harkat ul-Mujahedeen, was placed on the department's list of terrorist organizations in 1997 when it was called Harkat ul-Ansar.

The State Department's coordinator for counter terrorism, Michael Sheehan, and other senior administration officials have conveyed their concern to the Pakistani government about possible ties to the hijacking group and also concern about training of terrorists in Pakistan.

The anxious hijacking incident ended with 155 hostages freed in exchange for the Indian government's release of three members of the group.

Clinton, responding to a published report that implicated the Pakistani government, said at the White House: ``We don't have any evidence that the Pakistani government was involved in that hijacking.''

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said, meanwhile, ``we have no reason to believe that the government of Pakistan had foreknowledge, supported or helped carry out'' the hijacking.

Consequences for Pakistan, had the country been implicated, could have included being placed on the State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The seven countries on that list are ineligible for virtually all U.S. assistance and for American support in international lending institutions.

Clinton and his senior advisers are weighing a decision whether he should visit Pakistan in March on a planned trip to India and Bangladesh. Normally, a stop in Pakistan would be in order diplomatically.

But the military takeover of Pakistan by Gen. Pervez Musharraf last October has prompted an internal debate within the administration.

A decision is expected soon.

Because Pakistan has friendly relations with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, Musharraf could play a helpful role in U.S. efforts to force the expulsion from Afghanistan of Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of operating a terrorism network that arranged for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Meanwhile, relations between India and Pakistan have soured again, and the familiar concern in Washington is heightened by the fact that both have achieved nuclear weapons capability.

India has accused Pakistan of masterminding the hijacking.

The State Department's Rubin said: ``We have been concerned for some time about the fact that agencies of the Pakistani government have provided general support to a number of groups operating in Kashmir, including Harkat ul-Mujahedeen,'' And, he said, ``We also have reason to believe that the hijackers were affiliated with the Harkat ul-Mujahedeen.''

Lanny Davis, an attorney representing Pakistan in Washington, denounced the Indian government accusations.

``The big lie technique cynically used by the government of India falsely and without any evidence suggesting that the government of Pakistan was involved in the hijacking or sympathetic with the hijacking is reprehensible,'' said Davis. ``They have refused to present any evidence because they have none and we are grateful that the U.S. government today has rejected those scurrilous charges,'' he added.