A Sept. 6, 1986 photo of a Pakistan policeman standing in front of the Pan Am jetliner that was hijacked by a group of four while passengers were boarding time the Karachi International Airport. The U.S. government is trying to execute a hijacker for the first time, seeking the death penalty for Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, the leader of a group of pro-Palestinian terrorists who took over the jet killing 22 people. Prosecutors are so intent to put to death the Pakistani man for killing two Americans who were among the victims that they turned down his offer to plead guilty and serve a life sentence. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz)Pakistani authorities freed four Palestinians on Thursday who were convicted in the 1986 hijacking of a Pan Am jet in Karachi that left 22 passengers and crew dead, a prison official said.The men were released after completing their jail terms and deported to the Palestinian territories, said the official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The alleged leader of the group, a Palestinian called Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, was released from prison in Pakistan in 2001 through a series of amnesties, but was arrested a day later by FBI agents in Bangkok on his way to Jordan.In 2003, a U.S court sentenced Safarini to three consecutive life terms plus 25 years for his role in the hijacking.The five men hijacked the Pan Am Boeing 747 as it sat at Karachi airport waiting to fly to Frankfurt, Germany, en route to New York. They were demanding the release of 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and Cyprus. Later the same day, Pakistani commandos stormed the plane and the hijackers began shooting and throwing hand grenades at the passengers and crew they had herded into one area of the plane, according to court papers presented at the U.S. trial of Safarini.In all, 22 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. The five men were arrested. At a 1988 trial in Pakistan, the Palestinians admitted carrying out the hijacking, but blamed Pakistani troops for the passengers' deaths. All five were given death sentences that were commuted to life in prison, which means serving 14 years in Pakistan. The men had been held in a high-security prison in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.The prison official gave the names of those released Thursday as Mohammed Abdul Khalil Hussain, Daud Mohammed Hafiz, Mohammed Ahmed al-Munawar and Jamal Saeed.
Hijackers were Palestinians not Pakistanis.
ReplyDeleteThese are two different people, people when they read the photo description will get the biased opinions when the hijackers in reality were not Pakistanis.
This is the series of misytakes the Pakistani establishment has made. A terrorist has no religion, faith or belief, he or she is terror creating culprit who should get the maximum penalty. Relasing these suckers to the so called PLO in Paleitne has done no favor to the Muslims or the OIC or to the world at large. It is indeed a cures for the entire world. If PAKISTANIS ,ARABS AND AL OTHERS DO NO NOT DESISIT FORM THIS ATTITUDE, I AM AFRAID THE TEEROISTS WILL HAVE YET ANOTHER CHANCE DO COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!
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