October 19, 1977, Forty Years Ago: Hostages freed

Express front page forty years ago

Hostages freed

West German police commandos blasted their way into the skyjacked Lufthansa holiday jet at Somalia’s Mogadishu airport and freed all 86 hostages within minutes. The rescue squad, about 60 men brandishing heavy-calibre guns and special grenades designed to blind and deafen their victims for six seconds, stormed the plane only about 90 minutes before the skyjackers’ deadline to blow it up with all on board. West German government officials said the shooting was all over in two minutes. Two skyjackers were killed inside the plane and another who was wounded later died in a hospital. Within five minutes of the raid, the first of the hostages — 44 men, 31 women, seven children and four surviving crew — were scrambling to safety.

Three guerillas dead

The three leaders of the Baader-Meinhof guerilla gang committed suicide in their prison cells a few hours after commandos thwarted an attempt by skyjackers to have them freed, officials in West Germany said.

Prohibition for judges

New judges to the Supreme Court and the high court will have to take the oath that they will not drink so long as they are on the bench, a report that did not name the sources said. Serving judges, it said, have been exempted.

Bhutto’s plea

The jailed Supreme Court judge, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, urged the Supreme Court to reject the military coup that toppled his government in July last year “in order to restore legitimacy and save Pakistan”. Bhutto said in a statement submitted to lawyers in court that any attempt to justify the military takeover would bring doom to the country. In the 125-page signed statement sent from a Lahore jail, Bhutto replied to charges against him in a statement made to the court by a government counsel earlier in October.