IA Flight 423 hijacked to Lahore

Who: Five Sikh men, all members of Dal Khalsa, led by Gajinder Singh. The Tribune names the other four as Tejinder Pal Singh, Satnam Singh (Paonta Sahib), Karan Singh and Jasbir Singh in its 2017 report; its 2024 report gives the fourth name as Dalbir Singh. On board were 111 passengers and six crew.

What: On 29 September 1981 the five seized an Indian Airlines flight bound for Srinagar and forced it to land at Lahore. They demanded the release of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, then head of the Damdami Taksal, who had been arrested in a murder case, and of other Sikhs. The Tribune adds that they were also protesting the deaths of 16 Sikhs in police firing at Mehta Chowk earlier that year. The Christian Science Monitor reported that Pakistani commandos disguised as sweepers boarded the aircraft, overpowered the five and freed the 44 remaining hostages, ending a standoff of about 20 hours just over two hours before the hijackers' deadline.

Pakistan arrested the five and a Lahore court convicted them. Reports differ on the sentence: life imprisonment (The Tribune, 2017; WION) or 14 years (The Tribune, 2024). Both say they were released in October 1994.

Where: In the air on the Srinagar route, then on the tarmac at Lahore airport.

Why it mattered: It put the demand for Bhindranwale's release, made within days of his arrest, in front of an international audience, and it left Gajinder Singh living in Pakistan for the rest of his life.

After release, Tejinder Pal Singh and Satnam Singh came back to India (1997 and 1999 per the Tribune's 2024 report; deported in 1998 and 1999 per its 2017 report), and Dalbir and Karan Singh were given political asylum in Switzerland. Gajinder Singh flew to Germany in 1996 but was refused entry after India objected, and returned to Pakistan. He died there of a heart attack on 3 July 2024, aged 74, and his last rites were held at the cremation ground of Gurdwara Nankana Sahib. In India, Delhi Police filed a supplementary chargesheet on sedition charges against Tejinder Pal Singh and Satnam Singh in 2011, and the Delhi High Court refused to quash it in May 2017, holding that the offences differed from those tried in Pakistan.