Pakistan sends 3 PIA Fokker hijackers to the gallows

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

An anti-terrorism court 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 Supreme Court of Pakistan. Their mercy appeal was also turned down by the 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.