Pak executes FIA Fokker hijackers 17 years after conviction

Pakistan has reportedly executed three death-row prisoners, convicted for the 1998 hijacking of a PIA Fokker.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Hyderabad had sentenced the three accused: Shahsawar, Sabir and Shabbir, to death in October 1998, reported the Dawn.

Their executions were carried out after they challenged the death penalty but their sentence was upheld by the Sindh High Court, Karachi bench, and subsequently, by the Pakistan Supreme Court. Their mercy appeal was also turned down by the Pakistani President.

Shahsawar, Sabir and Shabbir had hijacked a Karachi-bound PIA Fokker shortly after it left Turbat, with more than 30 passengers on board, on May 24, 1998. They wanted to take the aircraft to India but, the pilot of the plane, Captain Uzair Khan, landed the plane at the Hyderabad airport, duping the hijackers into believing they had landed in the Bhuj airfield of India.

The hijack ended after security forces stormed the plane and overpowered the three hijackers.