U.K. court orders extradition of ‘Tiger' Hanif to India

May 4, 2012

London, May 4: After nearly two decades, the law has finally caught up with ‘Tiger' Hanif, an alleged associate of the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. A British court has ordered his extradition to India, where he is wanted for his role in two terror attacks in Gujarat.

Hanif, 51, whose full name is Mohammed Hanif Umerji Patel, has been charged with involvement in a grenade attack in a crowded market at Surat in January 1993, in which an eight-year-old schoolgirl was killed and more than a dozen people were injured. He has also been accused of leading an attack on a jam-packed railway platform at Surat three months later, in which 12 people were seriously wounded. After the attacks, which followed anti-Muslim riots in the State in 1992, Hanif fled to Pakistan before ending up in Britain. He was arrested in February 2010, after Scotland Yard detectives, acting on an Interpol warrant, found him working in a grocery store at Bolton, a town in north-west England.

Indian authorities sought his extradition on charges of conspiracy to murder and to cause an explosion. He is also accused of helping one of his accomplices escape by giving him cash, a weapon and a passport.

The prosecution told the court that Hanif wanted to “get revenge” for the 1992 anti-Muslim violence and used charitable donations to a Muslim refugee camp to fund the bombing campaign. “This defendant played a prominent role in setting up a … camp for Muslim refugees. The refugee camp had a fund … set up to collect donations, and it was agreed by this defendant and three other witnesses that the fund would be employed to buy weapons,” prosecutor Clare Montgomery said.

Mohmad Ghadliali, a co-conspirator, said in a witness statement that the decision to obtain weapons “for revenge” was taken at a meeting attended by him, Hanif and two others.

Lawyers for Hanif opposed extradition, arguing that he would be tortured by Indian investigators.

But a Westminster magistrate on Wednesday rejected the claims and ordered his extradition, describing him as a “classic fugitive.”

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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