NEW DELHI/JALANDHAR: Gazinder Singh, a pro-Khalistani terrorist wanted in India since hijacking a Delhi-Srinagar Airlines flight in 1981 and hiding out in Pakistan for four decades, has died in Lahore at the age of 73 after suffering a cardiac arrest earlier this week.
Gajinder was a co-founder of the radical Sikh organisation Dal Khalsa and an anti-India campaigner until his death, and was included on the list of India’s 20 most wanted terrorists in 2002.
He was cremated on Thursday near a gurdwara in the Pakistani city where he was hiding, and his daughter Bikramjit Kaur lit the pyre, Dal Khalsa leader Kanwarpal Singh said.
On September 29, 1981, Gazinder and four other terrorists hijacked flight IC 423, carrying 111 passengers and six crew members. The hijackers forced the pilot to land the plane in Lahore, where they negotiated with former Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh, who was then India’s ambassador to Pakistan, for the release of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and several pro-Khalistani terrorists.
Gazinder’s gang threatened to behead the pilot and demanded $500,000. The hijackers wrapped fruit in newspapers, claiming it was a grenade to blow up the plane.
The hijacking was ended when Pakistani special forces infiltrated the plane following diplomatic pressure from India. The Pakistani government at the time claimed to have imprisoned the hijackers for years, but photographs emerged showing them being released in 1986. Upon returning to India, Satnam Singh and Tejinderpal Singh were arrested, tried and acquitted.
Gazinder travelled to Germany in 1996, but was barred from entering the country due to Indian objections. He returned to Pakistan and went into hiding for several years. India continued to seek his deportation, but Pakistan denied him permission to stay in the country.
In 2016, Dal Khalsa merged with another militant organisation called Panch Pardani but retained its name to further its separatist Khalistan agenda.
Gazinder’s whereabouts were unknown until September 2022, when photos of him posted on social media revealed he was in Pakistan. He had posted a photo of himself standing in front of Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, Punjab, Pakistan.
Speaking at a ceremony in Hoshiarpur to mark the 41st anniversary of the hijacking, Dal Khalsa appealed to Pakistan to consider granting political asylum to Ghazindya.
On April 14 this year, 11 years after Indian death row inmate Sarabjit Singh was murdered in a Pakistani prison, arrested killer Amir Sarfaraz, an ISI stooge and associate of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, was shot dead by motorbike-borne gunmen in Lahore’s Islampura area. Pakistani authorities, without naming India, have ordered an investigation into his killing as a “targeted attack.”
Gajinder was a co-founder of the radical Sikh organisation Dal Khalsa and an anti-India campaigner until his death, and was included on the list of India’s 20 most wanted terrorists in 2002.
He was cremated on Thursday near a gurdwara in the Pakistani city where he was hiding, and his daughter Bikramjit Kaur lit the pyre, Dal Khalsa leader Kanwarpal Singh said.
On September 29, 1981, Gazinder and four other terrorists hijacked flight IC 423, carrying 111 passengers and six crew members. The hijackers forced the pilot to land the plane in Lahore, where they negotiated with former Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh, who was then India’s ambassador to Pakistan, for the release of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and several pro-Khalistani terrorists.
Gazinder’s gang threatened to behead the pilot and demanded $500,000. The hijackers wrapped fruit in newspapers, claiming it was a grenade to blow up the plane.
The hijacking was ended when Pakistani special forces infiltrated the plane following diplomatic pressure from India. The Pakistani government at the time claimed to have imprisoned the hijackers for years, but photographs emerged showing them being released in 1986. Upon returning to India, Satnam Singh and Tejinderpal Singh were arrested, tried and acquitted.
Gazinder travelled to Germany in 1996, but was barred from entering the country due to Indian objections. He returned to Pakistan and went into hiding for several years. India continued to seek his deportation, but Pakistan denied him permission to stay in the country.
In 2016, Dal Khalsa merged with another militant organisation called Panch Pardani but retained its name to further its separatist Khalistan agenda.
Gazinder’s whereabouts were unknown until September 2022, when photos of him posted on social media revealed he was in Pakistan. He had posted a photo of himself standing in front of Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, Punjab, Pakistan.
Speaking at a ceremony in Hoshiarpur to mark the 41st anniversary of the hijacking, Dal Khalsa appealed to Pakistan to consider granting political asylum to Ghazindya.
On April 14 this year, 11 years after Indian death row inmate Sarabjit Singh was murdered in a Pakistani prison, arrested killer Amir Sarfaraz, an ISI stooge and associate of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, was shot dead by motorbike-borne gunmen in Lahore’s Islampura area. Pakistani authorities, without naming India, have ordered an investigation into his killing as a “targeted attack.”
