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Hijackers not in Pakistan:Sattar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Foreign Minister said on Sunday that five hijackers, who disappeared in Afghanistan in a hostage exchange, were not in Pakistan.

"I can tell you with full responsibility that the hijackers have not entered Pakistan," Abdul Sattar told editors of Pakistan's Urdu-language newspapers.

"Under international laws dealing with hijacking, we will arrest them and put them before court," he said.

It was the latest Pakistani government denial of speculation and Indian allegations that the hijackers and three Mujahideen, whose release they secured from Indian jails, fled to Pakistan after the eight-day hijack drama ended on Friday.

Officials in Afghanistan, where the end-game of the hijacking was played out, and Pakistan, the closest escape route for the fugitives, both denied the group was on their soil.

Pakistan government said that it would arrest and try the hijackers if they were caught in Pakistan and denied Indian allegations they were Pakistanis.

In the southern Indian city of Madras, an associate of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday pressed the demand that Islamabad must arrest and hand over the hijackers.

"If Pakistan is really innocent as it pretends to be, let it hand over the hijackers, along with the militants, back to India and prove its innocence," Press Trust of India quoted Venkaiah Naidu, general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party, as saying.

Diplomats said that geographically and politically, the hijackers and the captives freed by India would most probably have headed for Pakistan or Azad Kashmir.

The hijackers and their colleagues were linked to Mujahideen fighting Indian occupation of Kashmir, the single biggest dispute between India and Pakistan, who have fought two of their three wars over the disputed Himalayan territory.

There was nothing to support speculation that the hijackers and their freed captives had headed for Azad Kashmir.

India insisted that the group headed for Quetta after it left Kandahar.

Pakistani officials admitted that it would be difficult to arrest the hijackers since they were masked throughout the hijack and no one knew who they were.-Reuters