India Arrests 4 It Says Helped Plan Hijack

India said Thursday it had arrested four Kashmir separatists in connection with the weeklong hijacking of an Indian airliner, and it accused Pakistan of masterminding the drama.

“Those on the trail of the wrongdoers have been able to make a significant breakthrough,” Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani told a news conference. “Pakistan is neck-deep in this dirty game of hijacking.”

Pakistan denied the allegation, which stemmed from the hijacking that ended in Afghanistan on Dec. 31 after India agreed to free three jailed militants in return for the freedom of 155 hostages on the plane.

Advani said four members of Harkat Moujahedeen, a Pakistani-based guerrilla group formerly known as Harkat Ansar that is fighting for Kashmiri independence, were arrested in Bombay on suspicion of providing support for the hijacking plan two months before it was launched.

Two of the four were Pakistanis and one was a Nepalese. The fourth was an Indian who, Advani said, was recruited by Pakistan’s secret service and later underwent guerrilla training at two camps, one in Pakistan and the other in Afghanistan.

“Interrogations [of those arrested] have confirmed that all five [hijackers] are Pakistanis, that this was a Pakistani operation, executed with the assistance of the Harkat Ansar,” Advani said.

Authorities in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, denied the charge and said India could be fabricating evidence.

“There is no evidence,” Pakistani government spokesman Tariq Altaf said. “Where is the evidence?”

Pakistan says it has no knowledge about the identity of the hijackers and has vowed to arrest them if they enter the country. Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked on Christmas Eve during a flight from Katmandu to New Delhi.

Advani said the four people arrested provided photographs of the hijackers. Police showed the photos to the pilot and passengers, who confirmed that the five men were the hijackers, Advani said.