Al Hindi accorded military funeral

Ramallah: Top Palestinian officials including President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad yesterday attended a military funeral for Ameen Al Hindi, a senior Palestinian figure who died on Tuesday at the age of 72.

Al Hindi was a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's Fatah faction and also headed intelligence services under the late Yasser Arafat. He was also linked to the 1972 Munich Olympic shooting incident.

Al Hindi, also known as Abu Fawzi, died of cancer of the liver and pancreas in a hospital in Jordan where he slipped into coma after undergoing a surgery.

Fatah sources said Al Hindi was given the homage befitting a hero both in the West Bank and Gaza.

Al Hindi was born in Gaza's Rafah area in 1940. He became actively involved in Fatah activities and later worked in the group's security department. He enjoyed a strong rapport with Salah Khalaf (Abu Eyad), who set up the security department, becoming his personal assistant and going on to be Abu Eyad's successor in the security department after his death.

Al Hindi joined Fatah in the 1960s and was active in Cairo, also playing a prominent role in the Cairo Student Union. He was among the first Palestinian students to set up student cells in Germany. It was there that he was involved in the Munich Olympics attack.

Al Hindi founded the Palestinian security services and became the first chief of the Palestinian Intelligence Department after the Palestinian National Authority was set up in 1994 under former president Yasser Arafat. Al Hindi commanded the rank of major-general. He led the Intelligence Department until 2005.

He was a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council in 1978. He was also a member of the Central Council of the PLO and a member of the Palestinian Higher National Security Council.

Among his colleagues he was know as an honest man and the ideal choice for difficult missions.

— With inputs from AFP