DATE=12/26/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=PLANE HIJACKING (L - UPDATE)
NUMBER=2-257510
BYLINE=SCOTT ANGER
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Hijackers of an Indian airliner have freed one
of the 161 passengers aboard the plane parked at the
airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As Correspondent
Scott Anger reports, a senior U-N official has arrived
in Kandahar to assist the Taleban movement in ending
the two-and-one-half day ordeal that has touched
several countries in the region.
TEXT: Hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane have
released an ailing male passenger after speaking by
radio with U-N Afghan coordinator Erick de Mul. The
U-N official arrived in Kandahar - at the request of
India - to help end the standoff.
The Indian passenger is the first to be released since
the hijackers allowed 27 hostages to leave the plane
while it was on the ground Friday in United Arab
Emirates.
The United Nations has insisted that its delegation in
Afghanistan will not negotiate with the hijackers. A
U-N official in Pakistan, Youssef Rashad, says the
United Nations will only play a humanitarian role in
the crisis.
/// RASHAD ACT ///
The U-N role as far as we are involved now is
purely humanitarian. We are not, or requested
to be, involved in negotiations. We are trying
our best to ensure the well-being of passengers
and to do our best to make them comfortable.
/// END ACT ///
The plane was hijacked Friday during a scheduled
flight from the Nepalese capital, Katmandu to New
Delhi and made stops in India, Pakistan, and U-A-E
before arriving in Afghanistan.
The five armed hijackers have threatened to kill all
the hostages if India does not release a Pakistani
religious leader, Maulana Masood Azhar and four
Kashmiri fighters being held in an Indian jail. At
least one passenger has been killed.
India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee says his
country would not bow to any demands by the gunmen.
Separatist Muslim militant groups have been waging a
war against the Indian rule in the two-thirds of
Kashmir under New Delhi's control.
This is not the first time armed militants have
demanded the release of Mr. Azhar. In 1995, five
foreigners were kidnapped in Kashmir by a militant
group demanding the Muslim scholar's freedom. One of
the five was killed and the others are missing and
presumed dead.
The militant groups are demanding either Kashmir's
outright independence or union with Pakistan, which
controls the rest of the Himalayan region. (SIGNED)
NEB/SA/RAE
26-Dec-1999 09:37 AM EDT (26-Dec-1999 1437 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
