Pak bound by law to turn in hijackers

Pak bound by law to turn in hijackers
JYOTI MALHOTRA

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 2: Pakistan is legally bound to return the hijackers to India since it is party to the 1970 Hague International Convention on the suppression of unlawful seizure of aircraft, according to legal circles.

According to Articles 6 and 9 of the Hague Convention to which both India and Pakistan are signatories the country in question, to which the hijackers have escaped, has certain obligations to fulfill. First, to apprehend the culprit, secondly to return the hijackers, the hostage passengers as well as the aircraft, and thirdly, either to prosecute the hijackers at home or to extradite them to the the country where the crime has been committed.

Since in this case the crime has been committed in three countries, with IC-814 hopscotching all over the region, the legal sources pointed out that the Hague Convention also calls for the return of the hijackers to the country where the aircraft is registered.

Pakistan may not extradite the hijackers to India since no extradition treaty existsbetween the two countries, the lawyers felt, but Islamabad is definitely obliged to prosecute the hijackers at home.

In practice, though, they conceded, Islamabad may simply turn a blind eye to the presence of the hijackers in its country. ``It would really depend on the goodwill of the Pakistanis to hand them over to India,'' said Fali Nariman, lawyer and MP.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had told a press conference on Saturday that India would seek ``retribution and justice'' over the hijacking, and since the hijackers were Pakistani nationals, would in ``appropriate manner and fashion'' approach the Pakistani government.

The Taliban ``permanent representative'' to the UN in New York as well as the Taliban Information Minister had confirmed earlier that the five hijackers are ``Pakistani nationals'' and that along with the militants, had left for Quetta in Pakistan as soon as the passengers were released in Kandahar.

With all the signals pointing to the fact that the hijackers are alreadyin Pakistan, observers here say it is small wonder that Islamabad is already loudly denying both the nationality of the hijackers as well as the fact that they have entered Pakistani territory.

Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider was on Sunday quoted as saying that Islamabad would not allow the hijackers to enter the country and that they would be arrested as soon as they crossed over. But Pakistan Occupied Kashmir's Mehmood Chaudhury has said that he would entertain any request of the hijackers to enter.

Another legal possibility that the government here can explore is to nab the hijackers through Interpol. ``Since one limb of the crime was committed in Pakistan, Islamabad could be called upon to assist India in bringing the hijackers to book,'' one legal luminary said.

Nariman also pointed out that India would however, first, have to file a case in the home court under the 1982 Anti-Hijacking Act, which would plead for the return of the hijackers to India.

All these lawyers neverthelessfelt that since a case in court could go on for years, the only thing left to do would be for the government to resolve this diplomatically. If Pakistan refused, the only recourse was to publicise internationally the fact that Islamabad was providing succour to terrorists.