Hijackers for direct talks with India
Russia calls for Security Council meeting
UN team back in Pak

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26 (PTI) — Hijackers of the Indian Airlines aircraft today handed over a sick passenger to a UN team as New Delhi declared it would examine “all options” to end the two-day old ordeal of 160 hostages.

Anil Khurana, a diabetic, who was allowed medical treatment in the airport hospital last night, was today set free by the hijackers as a “goodwill” gesture even as they demanded that the Indian Government talk to them directly on their demand.

Russia late tonight called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane, but diplomats said the earliest such meeting could take place tomorrow.

“Nothing is scheduled yet..the earliest would be tomorrow,” a British diplomat said.

The three-member UN team led by Afghanistan coordinator Erick de Mul from Islamabad opened a dialogue with Taliban authorities in Kandahar and later returned to the Pakistani capital in the evening.

Meanwhile, a report from Delhi said the air traffic control (ATC) at Kandahar airport tonight denied that the hijacked Indian Airlines plane had been refuelled, a report in Delhi said.

“The hijackers are refusing to let the plane be refuelled,” an ATC official told PTI over the satellite phone.

He said the aircraft was still parked at the tarmac and oil tankers were stationed near the aircraft.

Earlier, a western news agency had quoted Taliban Aviation Minister Maulana Abdul Mansoor as saying the plane was being refuelled and would be allowed to leave the country.

The ATC official claimed that the Taliban authorities had set a deadline for the hijacked aircraft to leave the country, which had expired as the hijackers had refused to refuel the plane.

The team established contact with the hijackers over the radio before the release of Khurana, who is said to be seeking the release of his brother also held hostage in the aircraft.

The UN team had arrived in Kandahar in the morning amidst a threat by the hijackers to blow up the aircraft if negotiations on their demands were not started immediately.

However, no Indian official accompanied the team.

Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, G Parthasarathy told PTI that no Indian official had accompanied the UN team. “I am very much here, he said reacting to certain agency reports that he had accompanied the UN team.

The Taliban asked the UN for help after the hijackers demanded the release of Pakistani cleric Maulana Masood Azhar and four other Kashmiri militants lodged in Indian jails and threatened to blow up the plane if talks on their demands did not begin immediately.

The hijackers have warned they will blow up the plane with all on board if negotiations are not conducted with them on their demand, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal was quoted as saying by the Pakistan-based private news agency Afghan Islamic Press.

In New York, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that the UN team will concentrate on humanitarian and safety aspects of the hijacking case. “India has asked up to be helpful on the humanitarian side. We are positioning ourselves to do that. It is not our intention to take over the negotiations.

Indian High Commission sources here said “complexities of the situation are being dealt with by New Delhi.”

The Taliban Government has warned it will ask the hijacked plane to leave the country if the UN and the Indian Government did not take immediate steps to resolve the issue, even as Pakistan allowed India to use its airspace for flying relief goods to Kandahar.

“If the UN and India don’t move quickly then we will be compelled to expel the plane from Afghanistan,” Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakeel was quoted by Afghan Islamic Press as saying.

We want an end to this incident quickly and hope that India will send a delegation soon,” he said.

Mr Muttawakil has said the Taliban will not enter into any negotiations with the hijackers and insisted that the UN should do so.