Indian police release alleged hijacker

Police in the Indian capital Delhi on Thursday released Tejinder Paul Singh, who allegedly hijacked a Pakistan-bound Indian Airlines flight in 1981, after a "detailed interrogation" , the Indian news agency PTI reported, quoting police commissioner Karnal Singh.

Singh was allowed to go as he said he had already been convicted for the offence in Pakistan, the commissioner said, adding that Singh had promised to produce documents about his conviction and sentence on Friday.

Police said they were asking their prosecution branch to examine the case, and assess whether Singh should be arrested, the agency reported.

Singh was detained late on Wednesday following his extradition from Canada.

After his release from 14 years in a Pakistani jail Singh fled to Canada in 1995 on a fake passport.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.