Taliban rules out talks

By Amit Baruah

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 7. The Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Omar, has blamed the opposition Northern Alliance led by Mr. Ahmed Shah Masood for the hijacking of an Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 aircraft while on a domestic flight from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday.

Mullah Omar was quoted as saying that the Taliban would ``neither negotiate with the hijackers nor will they accept their demands''. The British Government was free to hold talks with the hijackers if they wanted to do so.

``Even if they leave London (the aircraft is presently at Stanstead airport) for any other place, we will not hold talks with them,'' Mullah Omar said.

Reading from a letter written by Mullah Omar to British authorities, the Taliban Ambassador in Pakistan, Mr. Saeed Haqqani, said the Taliban considered Masood and ``his terrorists'' to be closely connected with the hijacking.

The envoy told reporters that holding talks with the hijackers or accepting their demands would amount to ``strengthening'' their terrorist action. However, the Taliban did want the safe release of the passengers on board the plane.

The Taliban, he claimed, had contacted the authorities in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Britain to find ways of ensuring the passengers' safety.

Pointing that the Taliban had not asked the British authorities to storm the aircraft, he said, ``instead, we have asked them to protect the lives of the passengers and they have assured us they will.''

The Taliban had not been told of any demands from the hijackers. ``We have seen reports that they have demanded the release of (former Herat Governor) Ismail Khan. But the authorities in Uzbekistan, Kazakhastan, Russia and Britain have not told us anything in this regard,'' Mr. Haqqani said.

To a question, the Taliban representative said an investigation had been launched to uncover how the hijacking took place. It was not clear how the hijackers took weapons inside the plane or had obtained them from the pilot or others on board.

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Section  : International
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