Pakistan Will Try Hijackers of Pan Am Jet

Describing them as “very motivated and highly volatile youngsters,” President Zia ul-Haq said Sunday that the four hijackers of a Pan American World Airways jumbo jet will be tried in Pakistani courts.

“I hope they will receive the full punishment such a crime deserves,” Zia said, noting that the maximum penalty under Pakistan law is death by hanging.

Zia said that the four, ranging in age from 19 to 25, are all Palestinians but that they do not appear to be connected to any government.

Sixteen hours after seizing the Pan Am jet with 384 passengers and crew on a runway apron at Karachi International Airport on Friday, the four hijackers apparently panicked when the aircraft’s interior lights dimmed. They fired automatic weapons and exploded grenades inside the cabin. The death toll Sunday remained at 16, with 43 persons still hospitalized locally.

Zia made his comments at an airport press conference after his return from the Nonaligned Movement’s summit in Harare, Zimbabwe. In Harare, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Saturday charged that Pakistan “bungled” the handling of the hijacking, causing unnecessary loss of life.

More than 190 Indians were on board the plane, and seven died in the shooting, more than the number of fatal victims from any other country.

Some of the passengers interviewed after the hijacking asserted that Pakistan commandos and police were too late arriving at the plane after the terrorists began firing and did not bring ladders and other equipment necessary to help passengers leave the plane.

On Sunday, Zia dismissed Gandhi’s comments as “premature or based on wrong facts.”

‘Totally Satisfied’

The Pakistan president said he is “totally satisfied” with the actions of officials and rescue units.

“I am very proud of them,” he said. “It was professionally and bravely handled, and the result was what we expected. It could have been worse if those explosive charges they (the hijackers) placed had blown up.”

While the hijacking was still under way, the terrorists told Pakistani negotiators that they had planted explosives in the plane. At least one of the hijackers wore what he claimed was a belt of explosives around his waist.

Zia said the four suspects are being interrogated by Pakistani investigators.

He said it is “unfortunate” that the four, one of whom he said was critically wounded, were backers of the Palestinian cause. Pakistan, he noted, has a history of strong support for that cause.

He added that killings on Pakistani soil by pro-Palestinian terrorists will not diminish his country’s support for Palestinians and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

‘Sole Representative’

“Pakistan will continue to support the Palestinian cause and recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole representative of the Palestinian people,” he said.

The Pakistani leader also said that said he had a “heart-to-heart talk” with Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi at the nonaligned summit.

Zia noted that two terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for the hijacking: the previously unknown Libyan Liberation Cell and the Soldiers of God, a Lebanese-based terrorist organization. He said Kadafi “categorically denied any connection with the Libyan group.”

“If it does exist,” Zia said the Libyan leader told him, “then it is against me.”

Noting that Pakistan has no extradition treaty with the United States or India, Zia said the hijacking suspects will be tried in Pakistan under Pakistan law. After handling six hijacking cases in the last 10 years, he said, “Pakistan is quite competent and confident to deal with such cases ourselves, and Americans are fully aware of this.”

Contradictions, Confusion

Zia’s expressions of support for Pakistani officials’ handling of the hijacking crisis came amid continued confusion and contradictory statements about the nature and timeliness of the action taken by the authorities.

Since the event, Pakistani officials have variously said that commandos arrived on the scene from two minutes to as many as 20 minutes after the hijackers began shooting the passengers. Most passengers interviewed by reporters said they saw no sign of commandos or police rescue units when they first fled the aircraft on escape chutes or by jumping from the wings.

After rehearsing their action by using another 747 jetliner parked at a different part of the airport, the commandos massed about 200 yards from the plane.

However, on Saturday, Pakistan civil aviation director Kurshid Anwar Mirza said they did not arrive to help the passengers until at least 15 minutes after the shooting had occurred.

Mirza said he was standing outside the darkened aircraft with a Pam American representative when the shooting began. He said he was also there when one of the first passengers, whom he identified as Darrell R. Pieper, an American, escaped from the plane.

‘For God’s Sake, Do Something’

“They have started killing everyone inside,” he said Pieper told him. “For God’s sake, do something.”

Mirza said there were no commandos nearby.

“They were not in the near vicinity,” he said. “We were calling for help and yelling for help.” He said that 20 minutes after the shooting, police finally brought a ladder so that they could enter the plane through open doors at least 30 feet above the tarmac.

At the press conference Sunday night, however, Gov. Jehandad Khan of Sind province, one of the officials who coordinated the passenger rescue efforts and negotiations with the hijackers, asserted that the commandos were at the airplane in two minutes.

Another discrepancy was resolved by Zia in his press conference.

Initially, Pakistan officials said two hijackers were killed by army commandos storming the aircraft. Later, they said only one hijacker was killed. By Saturday, however, they were saying that no hijackers were killed but that one was wounded. In the meantime, there were other reports that as many as seven terrorists had taken part in the hijacking.

Serious Wounds

Zia said Sunday that there were only four hijackers, all of whom are alive although one suffered serious wounds.

Adding to the confusion, several passengers interviewed Sunday said they believe that the injured hijacker was not wounded by security forces but was caught in the fire of his fellow hijackers when they begin firing aboard the aircraft.

Another puzzle was added Sunday when two passengers said in interviews that security officers had told them the electric generator supplying light to the airplane cabin did not fail because fuel ran out--as Pan American and Pakistani officials had said earlier--but rather was turned off by a Pakistani commando, who climbed into the underbody of the aircraft through the nose-wheel bay.

One of the passengers, Clarence Maloney, 52, a native of New Jersey who has been working in Bangladesh and India for the last several years, said a security officer told him that it had been part of the Pakistani rescue plan to shut down the generator and throw the airplane into darkness.

“He said they went into the nose wheel and cut the switch off,” Maloney said. “He said their intention was to go in and spray gas that would knock out the passengers and then go in later and identify the hijackers.”

This version was vigorously denied Sunday by Pan American and Pakistani officials.