Hijacked IA plane lands in Afghanistan 25 hostages released

DUBAI, Dec 25 (PTI) — Hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane, suspected to be militants, offloaded three bodies and set free 25 Indian passengers at Minhat air force base, near here, this morning before forcing the plane with 161 persons to take off and land at Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The unidentified bodies were offloaded along with all 13 children, nine women and three men at around 6.30 am (IST) after intense five-hour-long negotiations between the five heavily-armed hijackers and United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities, Dubai TV reported.

The airbus, which was hijacked last evening during a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi, was reloaded with 30,000 litres of fuel and food and water before the take-off.

The plane landed at Afghanistan's southern town of Kandahar, about 650 km from Kabul, at 8.33 am IST, Civil Aviation Secretary Ravindra Gupta said in New Delhi.

According to a report from Islamabad, soon after landing at Kandahar, 650 km from Kabul, the plane was surrounded by military vehicles but Taliban militia declined an Indian request for a rescue attempt, saying it was risky.

"We are in contact with the Indian government. They insist that we should save the passengers. But we think it is too risky," AFP quoted Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel as saying.

He said Taliban had allowed food and water to the plane. "And we want to give fuel to it and dismiss it. There is a stalemate at the moment," he added.

Mutawakel said, "We granted permission to the plane to land at the request of Indian government, but nobody will be allowed to come out of the plane.

He said the pilot of the plane is completely exhausted and he informed the authorities that he needs fuel and food.

Earlier, some of the released passengers said the hijackers were Sikhs and armed with pistols, hand grenades and knives.

"They blindfolded all passengers except women and children with pieces of cloth. I understand that one passenger has been killed with a knife," a 74-year-old male passenger said.

No demands have so far been put forth by the hijackers of the plane which had 189 persons, including the 11-member crew, on board when hijacked. Among the people aboard were 57 women, including five air hostesses, 11 children and two infants.

The passengers included 154 Indians, eight Nepalese, four Spanish, four Swiss, two French and one each from Canada, the USA, Belgium, Japan, Austria and Italy.

Dubai TV showed the released women seemingly shaken and tired and children weeping. A man, bandaged in the head, was seen comforting a woman and a child.

UAE's Information Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said the injured would be taken to hospital, adding, "we have not yet determined the cause of the injuries."

Earlier, the hijackers had told the pilot that they had killed four persons on board and wounded five.

The IA IC-814 airbus landed at Minhat air base at around 1.30 am IST today after hopping at Amritsar and Lahore and being denied landing at Kabul and Muscat.

On landing at the Minhat Air Force base, 12 km from Dubai’s main airport, the wide-bodied A-300 airbus was cordoned off by security forces.

United Arab Emirates Information Minister Abdullah Bin Zaid said the plane had been allowed to land for refuelling.

He said the permission for landing was given for the safety of the passengers.

“We have no idea,” he said when asked about the identity of the hijackers and their intentions.

The plane hijacked during a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi with passengers and crew on board flew to Dubai after a dramatic journey that took it to Amritsar and Lahore during which four passengers were reportedly shot dead by five heavily-armed hijackers.

After being hijacked in midair over Lucknow, the plane made a 25-minute halt for refuelling at Amritsar before being commandeered to Lahore from where it left for Kabul at 10:35 pm IST.

The hijacked airbus was refuelled in Lahore and the runway of the airport there was cleared for possible take-off even though the Pakistani authorities were trying to enter into a negotiation with the hijackers.

He said the plane had developed a technical snag as one of the valves in its engine had failed.

The flight engineer, accompanied by a hijacker, stepped for the first time out of the plane to rectify the probelm.

A report from Islamabad said the Civil Avaition Minister for the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan said that he had rejected a request to allow a hijacked Indian Airlines passenger jet with 189 peresons aboard to land in Kabul.

“The plane asked to land in Kabul but we have not given the permission,” Civil Aviation Minister Mullah Akhtar Mansoor told the Afghan Islamic Press from the southern city of Kandhar.

Pakistan said it allowed the hijacked Indian Airlines plane to land at Lahore on humanitarian grounds and tried to win the release of women and children.

Army spokesman Rashid Qureshi told newspersons that the hijackers were communicating in Hindi. “We tried to persuade them to release the women and children. They did not ask for any kind of medical aid”.

He said the plane’s fuel tanks were topped up and it took off from Lahore airport at 10.05 p.m (local time).

The hijacked plane “perilously” averted a crash while landing at the Lahore airport as the aircraft received no prior permission from the airport authorities, official APP news agency reported.

“All lights had been switched off at the airport as a precautionary measure but the passenger plane, said to have left with no fuel, landed at the dark airport perilously averting a crash”, the agency quoted civil aviation authorities as saying.

Meanwhile, the Indian Airlines has set up a special control room at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here to provide information about the passengers in the hijacked plane.

The telephone numbers of the control room are 5655110 and 5652173 and 5653217-18 and 5653225-8.

This afternoon’s hijack incident immediately raised the question of “lax security” at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport —Nepal’s only international air terminal.

Relatives rush to airport

AMRITSAR, Dec 24 (UNI) — Local relatives of the passengers on board the Kathmandu-New Delhi Indian Airlines airbus rushed to the Raja Sansi airport after learning that the plane had been hijacked.

Mr Rajesh Shangari and his wife Monica, whose three relatives are on board the plane, were in tears. “We received a telephone call from Delhi informing us that three of our relatives were on board the aircraft,” Rajesh said while talking to reporters at the airport.

The relatives of the Shangari family on board the plane — Daman Soni, his minor son Nitin and another relative Ashok Chawla are residents of Delhi.

Rajesh Shangari’s wife Monica who was almost on the verge of a break down requested newsmen to find out the latest from officials about the fate of the passengers. Both husband and wife became panicky when the plane took off from Raja Sansi and they were told later that it had landed at Lahore.

Passengers’ list

NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (PTI) — Following is the list of passengers and crew on board the Indian Airlines airbus that was hijacked on a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi today:

M. Tulasi, G. Prasadbabu, Mustaq Ahmed, S. Dhanashekhar, R.P. Kanan, S. Gupta, A. Gupta, S. Dhital, R. Pathak, M. Maheshwari, Mr Maheshwari, Mrs Maheshwari, S. Dubey, Mrs S. Dubey, K. Dubey, H. Maheshwari, Neena, S. Kumar, A. Kumar, S. Singh, S.K. Bansal, S. Gupta, I.N. Gupta, P. Bansal, A.A. Kathuria, R.K. Sharma, Mrs S. Sharma, S. Sharma, P. Kataria, R. Kataria, A. Gupta, H. Gupta, V.V. Moreno, F.C. Rodriguez, V.R. Moore, S. Singotia, Mrs S. Singotia, Dr S. Bhattacharya, A.K. Bhatacharya, S. Kalra, H. Arora, Mrs Arora, Mr Kalra, K. Koul, C.M. Tyagi, G. Tyagi, S. Agarwal, R. Parthasathy, Y. Kaur, V. Singh, S. Raghav, Capt R. Raghav, A. Agarwal, R. Garg, I. Singh, K. Koul, U. Koul, R. Kulasekar, V. Singh.

A. Gupta, A. Joshi, K.K. Sharma, M. Tolia, B. Bhojwani, M. Dawer, C. Hisada, N.P. Chapagain, S. Macklian, J.L. Shrestha, Mrs Shrestha, B. Menon, Mrs I. Menon, V. Grover, A. Grover, Mrs Kaur, R. Singh, Ravi Kumar, S. Goel, D. Goel, R. Kachroo, R.K. Ghosh, B.K.C. R.I. Mistri, S. Sethi, J. Bhatt, R. Dogra, R.G. Verma, S.A. Sayyed, A.P. Jain, R. Kumar, S. Sahani, D. Singh, I. Taneja, R. Ahuja, C.P. Chhabbra, R.K. Tayal, S. Kumar, A. Sethi, S. Kapoor, P. Kalra, D. Kumar, V. Sharma, K. Sharma, D. Johnson, A. Jain, J. Mayoral, A. Lloret, R. Vohra, S. Vohra plus one infant, B.K. Tandon.

M. Masoch, G. Macherel, A. Gupta, V. Gupta, R. Katyal, Mrs R. Katyal, D.K. Soni, A. Kumar, A. Agarwal, G. Agarwal, A. Swarup, K. Meenu, N. Mahesh, A. Sharma, K. Naithani, R. Naithani, B. Naithani, S. Naithani, D. Goepert, M. Sharma, F. Vougla, G. Goepert, A. Naithani, Mrs A. Naithani, N. Gangahar, A. Gangahar, A. Jain, Mrs A. Jain, S. Jain, Ms A. Jain, P. Baisla, A. Baisla, K. Baisla, K. Guru, G. Tamrakar, H. Shrestha, N. Mahesh, G. Baisla, A.A. Sharma, S. Kar, R.P. Singh, Mr Khandelwala.

R. Giori, Calabresia, P. Ward, R. Grover, A. Khurana, S. Sharma, S. Brara, U.B. Bhat, S.A. Qazi, S.A Qazi, S.A. Qazi, S.A. Qazi (four qazis), P. Garg, S. Garg, James, I. Verma plus one infant, S. Verma, Mrs Verma, Sharma, R.D. Dahali.

Following is the crew: Capt D. Sharan, Capt Rajinder, F/E Jaggia, F/P Anil Sharma, A/H Rajani, A/H Sabita, A/H Mukherjee, A/H Mazumdar, A/H Debnath, A/H Menon, F/P Satheesh.