Afghan Taliban Want Hijacked Jet to Leave
10:34 a.m. Dec 26, 1999 Eastern

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - The foreign minister of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on Sunday criticised the United Nations for not mediating in the Indian airliner hijacking and said he wanted the plane to leave Afghanistan.

``We have been trying the whole day today that the United Nations accept mediation between the hijackers and the Indian government and take the matter into its hands, but the United Nations refused to do it,'' the foreign minister, Abdul Wakil Muttawakil, told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).

Muttawakil did not say when or if the Airbus A-300 with at least 150 hostages and five hijackers would leave and added the plane had some technical problems which had to be solved first.

``Now in light of understanding with the United Nations, we are working on the phase of plane's return. We have informed the plane's pilots and all others about this understanding. But the plane's staff says there are technical problems.'' he said.

``Now we will check these technical problems and will try to fix them. We are ready to provide fuel, but oil is leaking from one tank of the plane. Only after all problems of the crew members are solved, the plane can be asked to leave.''

The plane landed in Kandahar on Saturday after stops in India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. It was hijacked after leaving Nepal on Friday.