Maulana Masood Azhar , the founder of Kashmiri group Jaish-e-Mohammed , is believed to have met bin Laden several times and received funding from him . In 2002 , Jaish-e-Mohammed organized the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl in an operation run in conjunction with al-Qaeda and funded by bin Laden . According to American counter-terrorism expert Bruce Riedel , al-Qaeda and Taliban were closely involved in the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 to Kandahar which led to the release of Maulana Masood Azhar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh from an Indian prison . This hijacking , Riedel stated , was rightly described by then Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh as a ' dress rehearsal ' for September 11 attacks . Bin Laden personally welcomed Azhar and threw a lavish party in his honor after his release . Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh , who had been in prison for his role in the 1994 kidnappings of Western tourists in India , went on to murder Daniel Pearl and was sentenced to death in Pakistan . Al-Qaeda operative Rashid Rauf , who was one of the accused in 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot , was related to Maulana Masood Azhar by marriage
Indian Airlines Flight 814
Indian Airlines Flight 814
Al-Qaeda