Tale of two hijackers: One is Congress candidate, other most wanted

JALANDHAR: They both had hijacked Indian Airlines planes separately, demanding release of their respective leaders from jail. Over three decades later, one of them is a Congress candidate from Salempur Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh and the other is still on the 'most wanted' list of India and is believed to be living in exile in Pakistan.

Congress' decision to field Bholanath Pandey, who had hijacked an Indian Airlines flight demanding Indira Gandhi's release from jail in 1978, from Salempur for the fourth time has irked Sikh group Dal Khalsa as it compared the plight of its leader Gajinder Singh, who had hijacked an IA aircraft in 1981, with Pandey.

Gajinder's name still figures in India's most wanted list. Recently, a compilation of his poems was released in Amritsar by Dal Khalsa. Bholanath Pandey and his friend Devandar Nath Pandey had hijacked IA flight IC 410 on December 20, 1978, demanding the release of Indira Gandhi and withdrawal of all cases against her son Sanjay Gandhi. After keeping 132 passengers hostage for some hours, the duo, who were carrying only toy weapons, surrendered. According to Dal Khalsa, Pandey was rewarded by Congress after the incident - first he got party ticket for assembly polls in 1980 and later for Lok Sabha.

Gajinder Singh, along with four Dal Khalsa activists, had hijacked an IA flight from Delhi to Srinagar on September 29, 1981 and landed it in Lahore where they were caught in a commando operation by Pakistani forces.

"Congress rewarded Pandey for hijacking the Indian plane to seek the release of Indira Gandhi during Janata Dal regime and the case against him was also dropped but our leader Gajinder Singh has been declared a "hardcore terrorist" for hijacking the plane for the release of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale," Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh said.

"The diametrically opposite approach adopted by the government and Congress in both the cases reveals double standards and discriminative approach," he said. Gajinder Singh was sentenced by a Pakistan court and served 14 years' jail term for his act and has been living in exile since his release in November 1994, he added.

Kanwarpal said the cases had striking similarities as in both incidents the hijackers did not posses weapons and did not harm any passenger and their act was to register protest and seek release of their respective leaders. "The only difference was that Pandey did it for the sake of Congress leader whereas Gajinder Singh did it for a Sikh leader," he said.

Gajinder is believed to be living in Pakistan after his release from jail. India's demand for his extradition has not been accepted by Islamabad till now.