Indian Airlines Plane Hijacker Terrorist Gajinder Singh Dies in Pakistan

New Delhi: Gajinder Singh, a most wanted terrorist and fugitive hijacker of an Indian Airlines (IA) flight to Lahore in 1981, , has died of heart attack at a hospital in Pakistan at the age of 74, reported The Tribune.

Gajinder was the co-founder of radical outfit Dal Khalsa. He was included in the list of 20 most wanted terrorists in 2002.

He along with four others hijacked an Indian Airlines plane carrying 111 passengers and six crew members on September 29, 1981. The plane was forced to land in Lahore.

The co-conspirators were Tejinder Pal Singh, Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib, Dalbir Singh and Karan Singh. All the hijackers were arrested by Pakistan agencies on September 30, 1981, tried and were all awarded 14-year imprisonment by a special court in Lahore. They completed their sentence on October 31, 1994.

While Tejinder and Satnam had returned to India in 1997 and 1999, Dalbir and Karan managed to procure political asylum in Switzerland.

India always sought Gajinder’s deportation but Islamabad denied his presence on its land.

It was in September 2022, Gajinder revealed his presence in Pakistan by posting a photo on his Facebook page.