8 More Released From Hijacked Afghan Jet

LONDON — The hijackers of an Afghan airliner released eight more hostages at an airport northeast of here Monday but continued to hold about 150 passengers and crew as negotiators worked to bring a peaceful end to a two-day drama involving five countries.

Police said the hijackers had made no demands since touching down at Stansted Airport before dawn other than for food, water, toiletries and medical supplies, all of which were delivered throughout the day along with a generator to keep the air conditioning going in the commandeered craft.

The state-run Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 was seized shortly after takeoff early Sunday on a domestic flight from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif--a trip that should have lasted about an hour.

Instead, hijackers directed the plane to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia, releasing about 20 hostages before landing in Britain. Late Monday, most of the passengers, including 21 children, 17 women and 14 crew members, settled in for a second night on board and an ordeal that threatened to last much longer.

Essex County police warned that the negotiations could continue for many days because it is Britain’s policy not to let a hijacked aircraft leave again once it has landed on a British tarmac.

At least six and possibly as many as 10 hijackers believed to be Afghan opponents of the country’s Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime were holding the aircraft, armed with guns, grenades and knives. But there was no confirmation of their identities or exact goals.

Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban’s supreme leader, blamed the hijacking on a coalition of groups resisting Taliban rule in northern Afghanistan and said his government would never negotiate with them.

“Those who have hijacked the plane have links to and are agents of [rebel chieftain] Ahmed Shah Masoud . . . and are, in effect, terrorists,” Omar said in a statement.

“We condemn terrorism in all its forms and will never talk to terrorists and will never accept any of their demands. If the British government talks to them or carries out any act, that will be their decision,” he said.

The leader of the Taliban, which controls 90% of the country but not Afghanistan’s foreign embassies, did not repeat earlier claims that the hijackers were trying to secure the freedom of Ismail Khan, a former regional governor and leader of the Afghan resistance against the Soviets who has been in Taliban custody since 1997.

Ambassador Masoud Khalili, the Afghan opposition’s envoy to India, said he had been in touch with the coalition’s leaders and denied that they had anything to do with the hijacking.

“No one knows anything about a hijacking,” Khalili said. “Maybe the hijackers are fleeing the Taliban and going to London to seek refuge. We don’t know.”

He said the opposition regards Ismail Khan as a friend who should be released, “but not via a hijacking.”

All of the passengers were believed to be Afghans, including 35 members of one family on their way to a wedding, according to civil aviation officials in Kabul.

One passenger freed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, told reporters that 15 minutes after takeoff, about eight hijackers stood up and calmly told passengers to lean forward and lower their heads. A second witness said he saw a pistol, knife and grenade on one hijacker.

In Moscow, released hostages added that the hijackers did not hide their faces but also did not reveal who they are or discuss their demands. The hostages said they had not been mistreated.

“They were all young, around 25 to 30 years old, dressed in traditional Afghan costume, and to begin with they were threatening,” Mohammed Bashir Mahal, a passenger, said in Pushtu, the principal language of Afghanistan. “But slowly, their aggression subsided and they treated us quite well. No one was beaten or insulted. Relations were good.”

The assistant chief constable of Essex police, John Broughton, said the demands from the kidnappers in Britain so far had involved requests for provisions. He described the negotiations as “fairly calm and businesslike” and said the fact that they were continuing was a positive development.

“It has been our stated intention right from the beginning of this incident to bring it to a safe conclusion without injury,” Broughton said.

He said morale on board the aircraft would have to be “pretty low” after the passengers had spent so many hours in cramped and stuffy quarters, apparently under the control of armed men.

The airliner remained parked about half a mile from Stansted’s main terminal, which was operating at about 80% of its normal capacity. Joe Edwards, another assistant chief constable, said that the release of passengers could be seen as a goodwill gesture but that negotiations could still drag on.

“It could go on for days,” Edwards said.

The reason for the release of the eight hostages at Stansted was unclear, although it might have been related to the delivery of supplies. Five people, including a man, woman and two children from the same family, were allowed off the plane at midday; three more emerged in the afternoon.

Broughton said that police were interviewing them for information about the hijackers and that these hostages had also indicated that they had been treated well on board.

The hijacking comes less than six weeks after an eight-day hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane ended peacefully in southern Afghanistan. The hijackers in that case freed their hostages after India released from jail three militants who are in favor of independence for the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

On Monday, the Taliban issued an order that armed guards would travel on all future Ariana flights.

The Taliban, whose leaders say they are building a pure Muslim state, is recognized by only three countries and is under U.N. sanctions because of its failure to extradite Saudi millionaire and suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, accused architect of the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The sanctions prohibit the state airline from flying out of Afghanistan.

* Miller reported from London and Filkins from New Delhi.