LUDHIANA: The International Human Rights Organization (IHRO) has urged the president of Pakistan to exercise his prorogation of mercy in the case of six Sikh hijackers, who are currently undergoing imprisonment of 25 years each in Central Jail, Kot Lakhpat, Lahore.
IHRO chairman D.S.Gill, in a statement here recently, said that the London-based European chapter of IHRO had written a letter to the president of Pakistan, Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Laghari, pleading clemency purely on humanitarian grounds for the six hi- jackers: Gajinder Singh, Jasbir Singh, Satnam Singh, Tej Inderpal Singh. Dalip Singh and Gurdeep Singh who had hijacked an Indian aircraft to Pakistan.
The hijackers had sought to internationalize the deep unrest among the Indian Sikhs and the Punjab problem. And during the hijacking, no innocent passenger was injured or killed. The safety of the aircraft was not endangered and they had behaved with utmost civility towards the passengers and the Pakistan authorities,” says the letter. It adds that if the hijackers were tried in India, lesser sentences would have been imposed as the case had been with Gurbax. Singh, who had also hijacked an Indian plane but was sent back to India and was sentenced to just seven years imprisonment by the Indian Court
While urging the Pakistan President to commute their sentences, IHRO has said that each of the hijackers had now served 12 1/2 years in prison. IHRO suggested either of the three ways of dispensing mercy.
The hijackers could either be released on parole, or released un- conditionally and granted political asylum in Pakistan, or released in Pakistan and given three months to find out an alternative home/country for themselves.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 27, 1994
