Plane grounded but hopes rise

The talks with the hijackers are expected to continue for the whole night, official sources said here. An Indian diplomat based in Islamabad, A R Ghanshayam, a commercial counsellor at the Indian High Commision inPakistan, arrived in Kandahar earlier in the day and could only promise the hijackers that a more senior negotiating team was on its way from Delhi.

Apart from seven negotiators, the relief team comprises two doctors and a nurse, as well as a 13-member crew and seven engineers and technicians who are to fix problems that have developed with the aircraft.

The seven-member official delegation, led by senior diplomat Vivek Katju, first held talks with a Taliban team headed by foreign minister Maulvi Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil before opening discussions with hijackers who have demanded the release of Kashmiri militants including Maulana Masood Azhar. Muttawakil had earlier warned that Taliban commandos would storm the plane if the hijackers carried out their threat to kill hostages issued in the morning before India had announced its decision to dispatch a team of negotiators.

He had also said that it was frustrating for him that the Indian side was not taking interest while governments of countries of whichother passengers were citizens, were contacting the Taliban and being cooperative on the issue.

The new found cooperation between New Delhi and the Taliban authorities has been received with an enormous sense of relief by the Indian Government.While some western nations, including Japan and the US, whose nationals are on board the plane, are believed to have got in touch with the Islamabad authorities, hoping that Pakistan would use its influence with the Taliban – Pakistan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are the only three governments in the world to recongise the Taliban government – they are now readily acknowledging their surprise over the fact that the Taliban may be turning a new leaf.

In contrast, there has been a remarkable lack of condemnation by Pakistan of the hijacking, Western diplomats here admitted. It seems as if international pressure on Pakistan may mount over the fact that the hijackers are allegedly Pakistani nationals. In Delhi, highly placed sources expressed bewilderment and surprise bythe three-hour delay on the part of the Pakistani authorities to clear the flight of the Indian relief plane through its airspace.

In fact, Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar accused India of arranging the hijacking to isolate Pakistan internationally. Pakistan on Monday claimed that an Indian intelligence agent is on board a hijacked Indian Airlines plane that has been sitting at an airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan, since Saturday.

Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Tariq Altaf said in a briefing that Islamabad has received "reliable information" that an Indian intelligence agent was on board the hijacked aircraft. Altaf reiterated an earlier assertion by Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar that the hijacking incident was being used by India to isolate Pakistan internationally. Asked whether the agent was a hijacker or a passenger, Altaf told reporters, "It will come out in due course." Altaf said Pakistan was concerned with the increasing tension at Kandahar airport, adding he was curious that India hasbeen the "least active" since the hijacking began Friday.

Back in New Delhi, foreign office sources attributed the delay in sending a negotiating team to Kandahar to the Idian effort to make the Taliban authorities share the "responsibility" for the well-being of the hijacked passengers. Some felt, sending a team earlier could have had meant that the Taliban authorities could wash their hands off the entire episode. They admitted that the initial assessment in New Delhi was that the Taliban, along with the Pakistanis, had been "involved" in the hijacking and that Kandahar was the ultimate, "chosen" destination.

But in the light of warnings to the hijackers by the senior Taliban leadership, the Government seems reassured about the fact that "while there are elements in Afghanistan who may have been working in tandem with the terrorists, the Taliban regime was not party to the conspiracy".Jaswant Singh, meanwhile, told reporters that he had sought the help of a number of governments over the weekend on"humanitarian grounds". It is believed that New Delhi called as many as 15 governments, including Islamic nations such as Iran as well as Western nations, over the weekend for help.

"I have been assured of help from all," Singh added, telling a questioner that the "cooperation I have received from the US is totally satisfactory."Nevertheless, the US has so far not sent a representative to Kandahar, unlike Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain, whose nationals are also on board the flight. Japan, which condemned the hijacking, is planning to send a representative to Kandahar.