Indian hostage freed by plane hijackers leaves Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Dec 30 (AFP) - An Indian hostage freed several days ago by hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane in southern Afghanistan left here Thursday after treatment in a hospital, the state-run television reported.

Doctors and staff bid a warm farewell to Anil Khurana with "good wishes and message of peace" the television said.

Khurana, a diabetic, was brought to Islamabad by the United Nations mission after his release on Monday.

His wife Nilo Khurana and a maternal uncle left with him. They were to fly home from the Pakistani border city of Lahore.

Nilo thanked the doctors and the government and people of Pakistan and prayed for early release of all hostages, the report said.

The hijackers are still holding some 160 passengers on the Indian Airlines' Aibus plane, which was hijacked on Friday and has been sitting at the Kandahar airport in Afghanistan since Saturday.

Meanwhile United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan, Erick de Mul, returned to Kandahar, saying the hijacking should end to the satisfaction of all sides and without any harm to the hostages.

He said the Afghan Taliban authorities had been handling the situation very well despite their limited resources and tremendous pressure from the incident.

A UN plane carried food packages for the hostages and UN officials said a flight with foodstuffs would go to Kandahar daily until the crisis was resolved.