Syria says it won't send 3 skyjackers to Pakistan

March 24, 1981

Syria has told Pakistan it will not extradite three gunmen who hijacked an airliner and ended up in Syria earlier this month, informed sources said Monday. The hijackers seized the Pakistani aircraft on a domestic flight March 2 and killed a Pakistani diplomat on board. They surrendered in Damascus March 14, releasing more than 100 hostages.

The sources said Syrian authorities had told Pakistan they had given the hijackers and the freed prisoners the right to stay provi sionally in Damascus until they decided where to go.