Envy mingles with relief in Afghanistan

Envy mingles with relief in Afghanistan
REUTERS

KABUL, FEBRUARY 10: Afghan officials on Thursday voiced relief at the bloodless end to the London hijack and many ordinary citizens said they would have swapped places with the hostages to escape Taliban rule.

Mullah Hamidullah, president of the state carrier Ariana, said he was happy with the peaceful conclusion to the five-day crisis, but said he now wanted his Boeing 727 aircraft back to fly pilgrims to Mecca.

``We appeal to the government of Britain to return our crew and the plane to us as soon as possible. We need the plane for emergency cases and to take pilgrims on the Haj (pilgrimage to Mecca),'' said Hamidullah.

The drama at Stansted Airport ended just before dawn on Thursday without casualties among about 150 people on board.

Afghanistan's state airline is under UN anti-terrorism sanctions which ban it from foreign flights, but the world body has allowed limited haj flights after an appeal by the Islamic Taliban government.

News about the hijack spread like wildfire around the batteredcapital, either from short-wave radios monitoring foreign stations such as the BBC or through illicit television sets owned despite a Taliban ban on UN-Islamic propaganda.