WASHINGTON — Forty years ago this week, armed terrorists stormed three D.C. buildings and took nearly 150 people hostage.
To commemorate the anniversary of the three-day Hanafi siege, a photo exhibit is currently on display at the Wilson Building.
Many of those photos are from the Washington Star archive, and some were never published. WTOP put together a video (above) that includes these photos.
Although the siege has largely been forgotten, a former WTOP newsman remembers it well.
Jim Bohannon, now a syndicated radio talk show host, was anchoring on WTOP on March 9, 1977, when word came in of trouble at three buildings, including what is now the Wilson Building.
“It quickly became apparent that these were three interconnected incidents, three hostage-takings, by a group known as Hanafi Muslims,” Bohannon told WTOP.
The group’s leader, Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, had left the Nation of Islam to found the Hanafi Movement.
A few years prior to the siege, seven members of Khaalis’ family were murdered at his D.C. home, and one of his demands during the siege was to have the convicted killers handed over to him.
Read more:
http://wtop.com/dc/2017/03/one-first-acts-serious-domestic-terrorism-1977/I'd forgotten all about this.