Indian Air Hijacker Seen Leaving Aircraft To Negotiate

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP)--A masked hijacker left the Indian Airlines plane Tuesday to hold a face-to-face round of negotiations, the first since the harrowing, five-day ordeal began.

The hijacker, who was seen wearing jeans and his face completely covered, sat in a vehicle tucked beneath the nose of the Airbus A300. It wasn't immediately clear who he was speaking to, but the vehicle in which he was seated belonged to the Taliban's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil.

Earlier Talks Via Radio

Indian negotiators opened talks with hijackers after they threatened to start killing people aboard the parked Indian Airlines plane with 160 passengers and crew aboard. The Indian negotiators have spoken three times to the hijackers, but always by radio or walkie-talkie from the control tower of the Kandahar Airport.

It still wasn't clear whether the hijacker who had left the aircraft was speaking to an Indian negotiator or to a Taliban official.

Earlier Tuesday the plane's engines shut down briefly interrupting talks, cutting radio communications between the hijackers and negotiators at the airport's traffic control tower. Walkie talkies had to be brought in to start the third round of negotiations.

Indian negotiators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the talks would take time. The content of the discussions was not immediately known.