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To: jmac who wrote (58510)	12/31/1999 10:22:00 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 152472

A HAPPIER NEW YEAR...... Friday - 09:53 12/31/99, EST Indian Airlines Hostages Walk to Freedom KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - All hostages on an Indian Airlines plane walked to freedom on Friday in an apparently peaceful end to their ordeal after India agreed to free three Kashmiri militants. The week-long drama that spanned five countries and cost one life ended when five gunmen disappeared into the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and more than 150 hostages got their liberty. Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh later said the hijackers had been given 10 hours to leave Afghanistan. ``We have given the hijackers 10 hours to leave for wherever they want to go,' Singh told reporters at Kandahar airport. The masked hijackers, who stabbed a newly married man to death for removing his blindfold last weekend, climbed down steps under the cockpit and drove into this city in southern Afghanistan in a deal overseen personally by Singh. He arrived from New Delhi in a special aircraft also thought to be carrying three Muslim militants whose release was enough to satisfy the hijackers, who are thought to be Kashmiri Muslim militants. Soon after the hijackers left Kandahar airport, steps were pushed to the main door of the Airbus A300, which was seized at gunpoint on a short flight from Nepal one week ago. The passengers walked down the steps to waiting vehicles and were then driven to the aircraft which brought their Indian negotiators across South Asia to Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban movement, on Monday. HOSTAGES WEAK, EXHAUSTED Taliban officials said the hostages looked weak, weary and exhausted after being cooped up inside the aircraft for the entire duration of their ordeal. It is now believed there were 155 hostages and five hijackers. Earlier reports said there might have been 154 hostages and six hijackers. The passengers walked into the welcoming arms of dozens of Indian officials and representatives of the Taliban movement, as well as members of the United Nations and diplomats. They were then taken to the Indian delegation aircraft and would be flown directly home, one Indian official said. Indian officials have said they hope to have the hostages back in New Delhi by 9 p.m. (1530 GMT). Originally the hijackers demanded the freedom of jailed Muslim cleric Masood Azhar but then upped their demands to include a $200 million ransom, freedom for Azhar and 35 other Muslim activists and the return of the body of a slain militant. But the demands were scaled down in painstaking negotiations carried out over two-way radios and facilitated by the Taliban, a movement which has been much criticized by India for backing Islamic causes. The hijackers had let a deadline pass on Monday in which they threatened to start killing the hostages if their demands were not met. The Taliban said they would storm the plane if any of the hostages were harmed. They also said they would not allow any outside military operations against the plane.