Gajinder Singh, the co-founder of Dal Khalsa and an India Airlines jet hijacker, passes away in Pakistan from a heart attack.
In 2002, Gajinder was listed among the top 20 terrorists to be avoided.
Gajinder Singh, a wanted terrorist and fugitive hijacker of an Indian Airlines (IA) flight to Lahore in 1981, passed away in a Pakistani hospital from a heart attack. He was seventy-four.
Gajinder’s daughter Bikramjit Kaur, who resides in the UK with her husband and two children, has confirmed the news, according to Dal Khalsa spokesperson Paramjit Singh Mand. Manjeet Kaur, Gajinder’s spouse, passed away in Germany in January 2019.
Co-founder of the extremist group Dal Khalsa Gajinder was included among the top 20 terrorists to be sought in 2002. He was one of the five who, on September 29, 1981, forced an IA plane carrying 111 passengers and six crew members to land in Lahore. The group was protesting the death of 16 Sikhs at Chowk Mehta earlier that year and demanding the release of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and several other Khalistani extremists.
Tejinder Pal Singh, Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib, Dalbir Singh, and Karan Singh were the other conspirators. On September 30, 1981, Pakistani agencies detained them. After their trial, a special court in Lahore sentenced them all to 14 years in prison. On October 31, 1994, their sentence came to an end.
In 1997 and 1999, Tejinder and Satnam returned to India, while Dalbir and Karan were able to get political asylum in Switzerland.
It has come to light that Gajinder attempted to enter Germany on a flight in 1996 but was denied entry due to objections voiced by India. He returned to Pakistan in some way.
His location had been unknown since. Islamabad continued to deny that Gajinder was even on its territory, even as India sought to have him deported.
In September 2022, he disclosed his whereabouts by sharing a picture of himself on Facebook while positioned in front of the Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, Punjab province, Pakistan.
In India, his social media page was also restricted for a while.
Gajinder was supposed to be given the title “Jilawatan Sikh Yodha” (Sikh fighter in exile) by the five high priests, led by the then-officiating Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh, in September 2020, but the ceremony was postponed.
