INDIA: INDIAN AIRLINES HIGHJACKING: HOSTAGES RETURN HOME (2)

(31 Dec 1999) Natural Sound

There were scenes of jubilation in New Delhi late on Friday as passengers and crew held hostage on an Indian Airlines plane in Afghanistan returned home.

Their release - eight days into the hijacking ordeal - came after India freed three prominent militants in exchange for the 155 hostages.

The Taliban leadership in Afghanistan has given the hijackers 10 hours to get out of the country.

Emotional scenes greeted the 155 Indian Airlines hostages as they arrived in New Delhi on New Year's Eve.

Cheering relatives rushed to welcome the hostages home after their ordeal on board the hijacked airliner in Afghanistan.

Airport employees, bystanders, police and journalists joined in with applause and cheers as the passengers emerged, one at a time, into the terminal at Indira Gandhi International Airport .

The pilot of the hijacked Indian Airlines jet was lifted onto his colleagues' shoulders and carried through the crowds.

The freed hostages expressed relief at the end of their terrifying ordeal.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"A very happy new year to everybody. Thank you all India for praying for all of us, Thanks a lot, thanks a lot."
SUPER CAPTION: Freed hostage

But hostages also brought with them stories of suffering and repeated death threats.

Much of their eight day ordeal was spent in terror and squalor, without food, water, light or heat.

One Indian passenger was stabbed to death after the crisis began on December 24.

Some expressed bitterness at the lack of airport security that allowed the hijack to take place.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Security at the airports has to be tightened. We cannot afford to make the same mistake again. We have d through a living hell. We saw death eight times. We not only suffered misery we suffered psychological warfare by the terrorists. I am going to create a web site called IC814.com. I want everybody to log on to give their opinions."
SUPER CAPTION: Freed hostage

Policed escorted the freed hostages to private cars to be driven to their homes in motorcades with flashing lights and blaring sirens.

Many of the passengers were taken in ambulances to hospitals to receive treatment after their ordeal.

Several appeared deeply shaken and burst into tears when they were reunited with their relatives.

The longest hijacking drama in more than a decade demonstrated the volatile nature of the long-running conflict in Kashmir, where Muslim militants are fighting to end Indian rule in the part of the region controlled by New Delhi.

The names and nationalities of the hijackers remain a mystery.

The hijackers had demanded the release of 35 Islamic militants and a cleric convicted in India of raising funds and organizing training for those fighting in Kashmir.

But the Indians agreed to release only three, and flew them to Afghanistan on a plane with Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was at the airport to welcome the hostages.

He insisted that despite the apparent compromise, India would not be held to ransom by hijackers and hinted that he would seek their arrest.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I want to state clearly that India's fight against terrorism continues unrelentingly. And I want to let it be known that no criminal that dares raise a hand against India shall ever go unpunished."
SUPER CAPTION: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian Prime Minister

When the hijackers fled the airport, they took with them one hostage - a soldier from the Taliban, the fundamentalist Islamic group that controls most of Afghanistan.






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