DATE=2/6/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=AFGHAN HIJACK (L-UPDATE)
NUMBER=2-258879
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A hijacked Afghan airliner with more than 150
people on board has left Moscow for somewhere in
Europe. V-O-A's Peter Heinlein in Moscow reports on
the aircraft's brief visit to the Russian capital.
capital.
TEXT: The Afghan Ariana airlines Boeing 727 jet
touched down late Sunday evening at Moscow's
Sheremetyevo Airport. It was met by teams of police
and elite commando units.
A spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service
briefing reporters in the early morning hours said the
hijackers had issued no demands. Spokesman Alexander
Zdanovich said if the hijackers want nothing more than
to refuel and get food, they will be allowed to leave
for another destination.
Several possible cities have been mentioned, among
them London, Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt.
The jet was hijacked during an internal flight between
Afghanistan's capital, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, to
the north. But it failed to turn up at its scheduled
destination, landing instead at Uzbekistan's capital,
Tashkent, where ten passengers were allowed to get
off. After being refueled, the plane took off again,
only to land a second time for fuel at Aktyubinsk, an
oil town in northern Kazakhstan, along the Russian
border.
It is still unclear how many hijackers are on board.
Several of the released hostages told reporters about
eight men who stood up 15 minutes after the plane took
off from Kabul, and told passengers to put their heads
down and avoid looking too closely. One said he saw
one of the hijackers carrying a pistol, a knife and a
grenade.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press Agency says
the hijackers are demanding the release of Ismail
Khan, an Afghan opposition figure jailed by the ruling
Taleban since 1997. But news agencies in Moscow
Sunday night quoted Afghan diplomats as saying the
prisoner whose release is being sought is not Mr.
Khan, but another opposition figure.
Russia does not recognize the Taleban, and Afghan
diplomats in Moscow are mostly allied with the
opposition. An Afghan opposition spokesman denied
that opposition groups were responsible for the
hijacking, and condemned the incident as "an act of
terrorism."
Under normal circumstances, Afghanistan's state-owned
Arian Airlines is prohibited from making international
flights. The sanctions were imposed by the United
Nations against the Taleban for its refusal to
extradite the Saudi-born terrorist suspect Osama bin
Laden. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/ENE-T/gm
06-Feb-2000 17:56 PM EDT (06-Feb-2000 2256 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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