On 30 January 1971 an Indian Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship aircraft named Ganga was hijacked by two Kashmiri millitants, Hashim Qureshi and his cousin Ashraf Butt, and was flown to Lahore, Pakistan where the passengers and crew were released and plane was burnt on 1 February 1971.^[1][2][3]

Ganga was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian Airlines fleet and was already withdrawn from service but was re-inducted days before the hijacking.^[2]

India retaliated to the hijacking and subsequent burning of the aircraft by banning overflights by Pakistani aircraft. This overflight ban in the run up to the December 1971 war between the countries had a significant impact on troop movement into erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.^[2]