U.N. won't negotiate for India in hijacking, minister says

Relatives of Rippan Katyal, the Indian man killed during the hijacking, weep as his casket is brought back to New Delhi

December 26, 1999
Web posted at: 6:52 p.m. HKT (1052 GMT)

In this story: Killing inflames Indian opinion Freed passengers offer clues RELATED STORIES, SITES

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.N. officials arrived in southern Afghanistan on Sunday as India insisted it would not negotiate with the hijackers who have held more than 150 hostages on board an Indian jetliner since Friday.

Erik de Mul, of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, led a three-person delegation to Kandahar to act as a mediator in the standoff. Officials of Afghanistan's Taliban, which controls most of the country, said Indian officials would be welcome to accompany the U.N. delegation.

VIDEO CNN's Satinder Bindra details the plane's treacherous journey QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     ALSO Nepal suspends airport security staff after hijack     MESSAGE BOARD Indian Airlines hijacking    HIJACKING ROUTE Timeline of hijacked Indian Airlines flight

But India's foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, said Sunday that the U.N. delegation is on a humanitarian mission.

"The United Nations does not claim intermediary or a negotiating role," Singh said.

The five hijackers are threatening to blow up the jet, which they seized Friday, unless India releases jailed Pakistani cleric Maulana Masood Azhar and other Islamic militants being held in Indian jails.

They have killed one hostage, a young Indian man on his honeymoon. India is asking for the man's wife to be released to attend her husband's funeral.

The hijackers released one passenger as a sign of goodwill Sunday afternoon, Taliban officials told the Afghan Islamic Press. The passenger was not identified.

The Taliban, an Islamic movement that few nations recognize as Afghanistan's government, asked the world body to step in because it has no diplomatic relations with India.

Singh said the passengers had been served food and were "comfortable." The plane also refueled since landing early Saturday morning in Kandahar after an odyssey across western Asia.

The hijackers seized control of the Airbus A300 on a Friday flight from Katmandu, Nepal, to India's capital New Delhi. They ordered the plane to land first in Amritsar, India, followed by Lahore, Pakistan: When their request to land in the Afghan capital Kabul was denied, the hijackers ordered the plane on to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The jet then went on to Kandahar, about 483 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

Relatives of Rippan Katyal cry near his coffin

In Dubai, they released 26 passengers and the body of a 25-year-old Indian man on his honeymoon. Witnesses said Rippan Katyal was killed after he disobeyed hijackers' instructions by not putting on a blindfold.

The killing has inflamed public anger and anxiety in India. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared his government would never yield to terrorism, and refused to celebrate his 75th birthday Saturday: Vajpayee said he shared the anxiety of hundreds of Indians who're spending the holiday season without their families.

The released hostages returned to New Delhi on Saturday, and their arrival provoked chaos at the airport terminal as a crowd of relatives and friends pushed forward, cried out and wept. Others begged for information about the fate of those still in captivity.

"We are still waiting for our daughter and son-in-law. God knows in what condition they are," said Ashok Gupta, who said she had been waiting at the airport for 24 hours.

Relatives wait at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday for news about the hijacked plane

Freed passengers said the hijackers were armed with hand grenades, kitchen knives, and pistols, not AK-47 rifles as had earlier been reported.

Passengers reported the men appeared to be Indians, said Sharad Yadav, India's civil aviation minister.

"The 26 passengers have told us something about the hijackers. We had lots of discussions with the passengers regarding the behavior, language and other such things of the hijackers," Yadav said.

A Taliban official told The Associated Press on Sunday that one hijacker identified himself as the brother of Azhar, who has been detained in India's bitterly disputed Kashmir state since 1994.

Muslim secessionists have been waging a bitter and protracted insurgency in India's portion of Kashmir, demanding either outright independence for the Himalayan state or union with Islamic Pakistan.

Azhar, who traveled to India in 1992 to help anti-Indian militants in Kashmir, belongs to a rich landowning family in Pakistan, according to Indian security officials: He was arrested in 1994 by Indian security in Anantnag, a small town in the region.

New Delhi Bureau Chief Satinder Bindra and Reuters contributed to this report.

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