PASSENGERS and relatives of victims of a 1986 hijacking in Pakistan today registered a lawsuit demanding $US10 billion ($13.91 billion) in damages against Libya and the hijackers. The action was filed on behalf of 176 passengers and families of some of the 20 people killed in the hijacking of Pan Am flight 73 at Karachi airport by the Abu Nidal group on September 5, 1985. The suit demands damages from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan government and the five Abu Nidal Organisation hijackers.During a 16-hour hostage ordeal, one Pakistani-American was shot in the head in front of passengers and his body then dumped on the tarmac. The hijackers finally opened fire and threw grenades into the cabin, killing about 19 people and wounding scores of the 380 people on board. Thirteen of the families of the dead have joined the suit, according to a statement released by the lawyers who registered the action.
Prabhat Krishnaswamy of Columbus, Ohio, who was on the jet and whose father, Seetharamiah, was killed, is one of the lead plaintiffs. Mr Krishnaswamy said in the statement it was only when one of the hijackers was caught by the US Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) and tried in the United States that the families found out about Libyan involvement in the attack by the Abu Nidal Organisation, a radical Palestinian group.
Zaid Hassan Safarini, a Jordanian, was sentenced to 160 years in prison by a US court in May 2004. He was caught by US agents after being freed from a Pakistani jail where he spent 15 years. The other four hijackers are still in Pakistani jails. "We formed a unified group determined to seek the truth behind this hijacking and hold Libya accountable," said Mr Krishnaswamy. "Libya has attempted to get off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and earn some sort of legitimate place in the world. But the victims remember," he said. "We are still here, and we are not standing down until we achieve justice. We owe this to the memory of the 20 innocent people who were murdered that day."