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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
The intelligence agencies are in a fix. They have got no clear instructions from the union home ministry whether to detain Parminder Singh Saini or not. Saini had hijacked an Indian Airlines plane in 1984 and was hiding in Canada under an assumed name.
Earlier this week, a Canadian federal court had ordered the deportation of Saini to India on the ground that he couldn't remain there because of his shady past.
"We have no instructions so far. But we would definitely keep a tab on him as and when he arrives. Hopefully, by that time, the necessary instructions would have come," a senior intelligence official told rediff.com on Friday.
According to Punjab police officials, Saini, along with eight others, had hijacked an Indian Airlines flight on July 6, 1984, to protest against Operation Blue Star, in which security forces had gone inside the Golden Temple to flush out militants, including Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
"The hijackers had taken the plane to Lahore. Saini, alias Harfanmola, comes from Kanoli village in the Ropar district of Punjab," a senior official of the Punjab police told rediff.com on condition of anonymity.
His accomplices were Dilip Singh, Harminder Singh, Gurdeep Singh of Ranbir Singh Pura in Jammu and Kashmir, Parvinder Singh, Paramvir Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Manjit Singh and Malkot Singh.
Manjit Singh and Malkot Singh were killed in an encounter with the security forces while they were trying to cross over to India in 1991.
Saini was tried and sentenced to death by a Pakistani court, but this sentence was later converted into life imprisonment. He was freed in 1994 on the condition that he would leave Pakistan.
He changed his name and entered Canada on a fake passport and was living there until the police arrested him eight months back and discovered his dubious past.
Saini's family is now living in Chandigarh. "He is no longer our headache because his family now lives in Chandigarh and it is for the Chandigarh police to take care of him," another official of the Punjab police said.
Meanwhile, intelligence agencies have alerted all the Indian airports and have asked the immigration officials to look out for the former terrorist. Normally, a person who has been convicted once cannot be tried for the same offence again. But Saini was come back to India in different circumstances. After the September 11 terrorist attack America, the scenario had changed totally, the police officials admitted.
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