Hijacked Pakistan plane flown to Afghanistan

March 3, 1981

A man who said he was a follower of executed former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhuto hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720 to Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday with 148 people aboard, a spokesmen said.

The spokesman said Pakistani aviation authorities confirmed the plane landed in Kabul and that all aboard were safe. The spokesman said the PIA flight was en route from Karachi to Peshawar when it was hijacked with 137 passengers and 11 crew members aboard. It was not immediately known why the hijacker chose to take the plane to Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.