A New York-bound Pan Am Airline Boeing 747 with 399 people on board was hijacked by five Arabs in September 1986 when it landed at Karachi from Mumbai.

The 16-hour drama left 20 people dead and more than 100 injured. In 1981, a PIA plane was hijacked to Kabul and flown from there to Syria by activists of the Al-Zulfikar opposed to Pakistan's ex-military ruler Zia-ul-Haq. The 13-day hijack drama ended in Syria when martial law authorities here released more than 50 supporters of former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).