A diary maintained meticulously by one of the key suspects in the September 11 attacks on the U.S., Syed Omar Sheikh, a Pakistan-born British national, has been serialised in a leading English newspaper here this week, unveiling the modus operandi of his terrorist network, the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was banned by the U.S. last week.

Sheikh was one of the three militants released along with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Azhar Masood by the Indian government in a hostage swap following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in December 1999.

Whilst the U.S. intelligence is investigating Sheikh's involvement in the transfer of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, a main suspect in the terrorist attacks, he has reportedly gone underground in Pakistan.

Also, it has been reported that U.S. authorities sought the removal of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed since he had instructed Sheikh to send the money to Atta.

Sheikh's 35-page notes handwritten in Tihar jail in Delhi, where he was charged under the Terrorist and Disruptive (Prevention) Activities Act (Tada), reveals his mission of kidnapping foreigners in India to pressure the Indian government to release Masood.

Some excerpts from his note published in The Indian Express also reveal that he was continually acting at the behest of his superiors in Pakistan.

Sheikh, a student at the London School of Economics, says he was touched by a film on Bosnia that forced him to leave England and join the Harkat-ul-Ansar in Pakistan to fight for the Kashmir cause.

In his note, he confesses that he was initially sent to Khost in Afghanistan for training in arms and then to India where he arrived in Delhi on July 26, 1994 from Lahore.

Often referring to a man he called 'Shah Saab' who gave him the orders, he was told that his responsibility was the foreigners.

"Remember, American first priority, then British and French," he was told. His first victim was an Israeli tourist who called himself Akhmir. He managed to take him to the house where his other associates lived.

"Shah Saab gazed at me incredulously, peered out of the window and saw Akhmir standing there. 'You fool,' hissed Shah Saab. 'You'll get us all killed. Take him back at once'.

"I made several acquaintances and convinced a British chap called Trevor to come to the village after a few days. But the strongest friendship by far was with Rhys Partridge and Graham Fox – we had many common interests like chess, travelling and writing."

Rhys was tied up by Sheikh's three associates after they brandished two pistols. In the following days Sheikh befriended more foreigners.

An American Bela Joseph Nuss was kept in Ghaziabad while three British nationals Christopher Crosten, Rhys Partridge and Paul Rideout were lodged in the Saharanpur hideout.

As they returned to calm the hostages, two armed policemen, on a routine patrol, arrested them as Sheikh struck one of them. Police then freed the hostages from both the hideouts.

These are all part of the court's records with the prosecution pressing charges of terrorism in Ghaziabad for attacking the policemen and in Delhi for kidnapping. In November 1998, the Ghaziabad court acquitted him of terrorism but convicted him under ordinary law.

However, in Delhi, the charges were to be framed and by that time the hijack of IC-814 took place and Sheikh was released by the Indian government.