International ‘Unarmed’ hijackers surrender after bid to free Mrs Gandhi

Press, 22 December 1978, Page 5

International ‘Unarmed’ hijackers surrender after bid to free Mrs Gandhi

NZPA

INZPA - New Delhi Two men who hijacked an Indian domestic airliner demanding the release from prison of the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, surrendered early yesterday and released all 125 captive passengers unharmed.

The hijackers told a Press Trust of India correspondent that they had been armed only with toy pistols and had pretended the cricket ball was a hand grenage when they told the pilot they were taking over the plane. The two hijackers, identified as members < of the youth wing of Mrs Gandhi’s political party, will appear at a news conference . in Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital, with Mr R. M. Yadav, the state Chief Minister who successfully negotiated their surrender about 12 hours after they commandeered the Indian Airlines Boeing 737 jet, United News of India has reported. Indicating that the demand to release Mrs Gandhi was rejected, Mr Yadav was quoted by U.N.I. as saying that attempts at violence, sabotage, or arson would not be tolerated. The two sky-pirates hijacked the jet shortly after take-off from Luckndw on Wednesday night and forced it to land at Varanasi, about

600 km south-east of New Delhi. The hijackers distributed leaflets protesting agaifet Mrs Gandhi’s arrest and shouted “Long live Indira Gandhi” slogans as they burst into the cockpit and seized the airliner. At Varanasi, negotiations were held between Mr Yadav and the hijackers over the cockpit radio after a unit of the paramilitary border security force surrounded the captive plane. The Indian Parliament on Tuesday voted 279 to 178 to expel Mrs Gandhi from it? ranks and send her to prison for breach of Parliamentary privilege. The offence involved blocking a 1975 Parliamentary investigation into her son’s car business while she was Prime Minister. The arrest set off nationwide protests by Gandhi supporters in which five people were killed, and U.N.I. said that 18,000 had been arrested. Mrs Gandhi is expected to be released from the Tihar Jail in Delhi today when the

present session of Parliament ends. Pro-Gandhi protesters set fire to buses in Bombay and railway cars in Bangalore, South India. Elsewhere, mobs attacked post offices, railway stations and local stations of the State-owned All-India Radio network, which Mrs Gandhi has claimed is biased against her. Some of the most violent outbursts were in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, formerly known as Madras, where at least 8000 persons had been arrested, U.N.I. said. A Bombay policeman was doused with petrol and set on fire in one- confrontation. He was taken to hospital and later declared out of danger. The Parliamentary Secre-

tariat has issued formal notification that the seat at Chikmagalur, in South India, was vacant after the expulsion of Mrs Gandhi. Mrs Gandhi was elected at Chikmagalur in a by-election on November 5.