Three convicted over India hijack

By Jyotsna Singh
BBC News, Delhi

The plane was hijacked 40 minutes after take-off

An Indian court has found three men guilty of conspiracy in connection with the hijacking of a passenger plane in December 1999.

The state-run Indian Airlines jet was hijacked en route to Delhi from Kathmandu with 180 people on board.

It was flown to Kandahar, Afghanistan, from where the hijackers negotiated the release of militants fighting in Indian-administered Kashmir.

None of the five armed hijackers has been caught.

The three men found guilty in Patiala in Punjab province are Abdul Latif, Dalip Kumar and Yusuf Nepali.

They were given life prison sentences for helping the hijackers acquire fake passports and smuggle weapons aboard the plane.

The lawyers defending the three say they will challenge Tuesday's verdict in a higher court.

Militants freed

More than 100 witnesses were examined in the case.

The hijackers seized the plane 40 minutes after it took off from Kathmandu, Nepal, on a flight to Delhi on 24 December.

India released three militants its forces had captured in connection with the insurgency in Kashmir in exchange for the release of the passengers.

One of those freed by India was Pakistani religious leader Maulana Masood Azhar of the militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Another was British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. He was later sentenced to death in Pakistan for abducting and murdering US journalist Daniel Pearl who disappeared in Karachi.