3 hijackers among eight hanged in Pak

Islamabad, May 28

Three men who hijacked a plane of Pakistani airlines in 1998 and tried to take it to India were among eight persons who were hanged today in different jails across Pakistan.

The convicts, Shahsawar, Sabir were sent to gallows in Hyderabad jail while Shabbir was executed in Karachi Central Jail.

A court in Hyderabad sentenced them to death on August 20, 1998 and their appeals were later turned by the higher courts.

Pakistan International Airline (PIA) Fokker plane was hijacked by the three men shortly after it took off from Turbat in Balochistan for Karachi.

There were 30 passengers on board and the hijackers wanted to take it to India, but pilot Captain Uzair Khan duped them by landing at the Hyderabad airport, as the hijackers were told that they had landed in India.

Later, the security forces stormed the plane and overpowered the hijackers.

Meanwhile, another death row prisoner was hanged in Karachi Central Jail. He was guilty of killing a minor boy in 2003. — PTI