Hijackers drop cash demand amid hopes of breakthrough

The hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane dropped demands for a ransom and the body of a Kashmiri militant in what could be a breakthrough in negotiations aimed at ending the six-day hijacking, the Taliban's foreign minister said.

The hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane dropped demands for a ransom and the body of a Kashmiri militant in what could be a breakthrough in negotiations aimed at ending the six-day hijacking, the Taliban's foreign minister said.

The Taliban intervened at Indian negotiators' request, convincing the hijackers to back off the dlrs 200 million ransom demand, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said at the Kandahar airport. The Taliban reminded the hijackers the ransom and removing a body from its burial ground were against Islam, he said.

Muttawakil added that the plane will not be allowed to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely.

"If the two sides are unable to solve their problems soon, the Taliban will force the hijackers to leave Afghanistan," he said, without elaborating.

In exchange for the release of 155 people being kept captive aboard the plane, the hijackers Tuesday demanded the ransom, the release of 35 militants and a Pakistani cleric from Indian prisons, and the body of a militant Kashmiri killed earlier this year.

Muttawakil said the hijackers have refused to budge on the number of Kashmiri fighters they want released. They also are insisting on the release of Masood Azhar, an ideologue of the Harkat ul-Ansar, an Islamic militant group active in Kashmir.

Muslim militants have been waging an insurgency in Indian-held Kashmir, demanding either independence for the Muslim-majority Himalayan state or union with Pakistan.

Talks between Indian negotiators and the hijackers began late Monday - four days after the plane was seized - after the captors threatened to start killing passengers. Negotiators were communicating with the hijackers by radio from the control tower at the Kandahar airport.

"Talks are making progress. Negotiations are give and take," said A.R. Ghanashyam, an Indian diplomat in Kandahar.

In India, the government said it had given an "appropriate" reply to the hijackers' demands, but did not elaborate.

Aboard the plane, conditions have improved slightly, according to Taliban soldiers who boarded the aircraft Tuesday to clean it. Toilets were flushed and the heaps of garbage removed, said a Taliban soldier who asked not to be identified.

Passengers, apparently allowed to remove the blindfolds they were forced to wear, were more relaxed, playing cards, chess and board games, soldiers said.

Earlier, Taliban soldiers who delivered food to the hostages had described the smell inside the cabin as strong and unpleasant, a sign that the passengers may have been sick.

On the tarmac, where temperatures fell below freezing overnight and Taliban soldiers huddled near open fires for warmth, soldiers were seen laying out blankets and praying. Some said they were praying for the safety of the passengers.

Emergency medical tents were erected near the plane by the International Red Cross and United Nations so passengers can be treated as soon as they are released, officials said. Meanwhile, medicine has been passed onto a hostage who is a doctor.

The Taliban have urged the hijackers to release at least the women, children and those who are ill, Muttawakil said. They refused, he said.

"We know there are some people who are in bad condition," he said.

Negotiators should agree to the hijackers' demands if it will ensure the passengers' safety, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Tuesday.

"You hate to give in to terrorism because they are using intimidation tactics to gain their ends for political reasons and for monetary reasons," Axworthy said in Ottawa. "But ultimately, the bottom line has to be the safety and security of people."

The five hijackers - armed with grenades, pistols and knives - seized New Delhi-bound Flight 814 some 40 minutes after it took off from Katmandu, Nepal, on Friday, Indian officials said. The plane stopped in India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, where some 27 passengers were released, before landing in Afghanistan on Saturday.

One man has been stabbed to death, apparently for disobeying hijackers' orders not to look at him, and one ailing passenger was allowed off Sunday.

The plane was carrying 178 passengers and 11 crew members when it took off Friday, including 150 Indians, eight Nepalese, one Canadian, one American, four Swiss, four Spaniards, one Belgian, one Japanese, one Australian, two French and one Italian. Nationalities were not listed for four passengers.