LAHORE: The two Kashmiri commandos, Qureshi Mohammad Hashim and Ashraf Qureshi, today [Feb 2] blew up the Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship, ‘Ganga’ which they had hijacked to Lahore from Srinagar 79 hours earlier.... At about 8-05 p.m. the two commandos who had been staying in the plane since they brought it to Lahore, set it on fire. After the flames had engulfed it, they jumped out of the plane and threw hand grenades. They, however, continued to stay near the plane till they were convinced that it had been completely wrecked. The commandos who were still armed did not allow the fire-fighting engines to go near the plane. All persuasion by the police failed to make them leave the place. It was only when at the SSP Lahore the National Liberation Front leader Maqbool Butt went to them and requested them to move away, that they left the place. …

... [The] hijackers had said that if the three conditions set by them were not fulfilled they would blow up the plane. The conditions were: (a) India should release the 36 arrested leaders of the National Liberation Front and send them to Lahore, (b) the commandos should be given asylum in Pakistan, and (c) they should not be subjected to any interrogation and their movement in Pakistan should not be restricted.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2021