In 1971 , Bhat was accused of masterminding the hijacking of an Indian Airlines passenger airline to Lahore , Pakistan , as the hijackers declared affiliation with JKLF under the leadership of Bhat . It had 30 passengers . Maqbool , the architect of the hijacking , had no presentable clothes to wear to address the press conference which followed after the plane landed . It was only after his associate Abdul Khaliq took a shirt and a pant from two different persons that Bhat could appear before the cameras to demand the release of around 25 NLF prisoners in Indian prisons in exchange for the passengers . Eventually , all passengers and crew were sent back to India while the empty aircraft was blown up . This hijacking would give India an opportunity to disallow any flights from Pakistan over its territory , which hampered the plans of Yahya Khan in sending troops by air to East Pakistan where a rebellion had already been going on . Maqbool Bhat , his friends and every other member of their organisations was arrested and interrogated at Shahee Qila Lahore and ‘ Dulahee Camp ’ Muzaffarabad but everybody except Hashim Qureshi was rereleased after two years . After the trial , NLF ’s membership fell due to the torture faced by its members and Islamabad ’s blanket ban on Independent Kashmir activism . But Maqbool Butt was not to relent and decided to cross into Indian administered Kashmir once again but was captured in 1976
passenger airline
1971 Indian Airlines hijacking
Maqbool Bhat