The Ariana Airlines plane was hijacked en route from...

The Ariana Airlines plane was hijacked en route from the Afghan capital of Kabul to northern Mazar-e-Sharif. After being seized, the Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 was diverted out of Afghan airspace, making a series of stops on a journey that traversed Central Asia, Russia, and landed in Britain on runway 7 at the Stansted airport. The Taleban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil urged Britain to reject the requests of the 73 asylum seekers (60 adults and 13 children), saying it would encourage hijacking. He said they were economic refugees, not political ones. He also promised that they would not be punished if they returned home to Afghanistan. The Taleban, however, wanted the hijackers prosecuted and punished, but have not demanded their return to Afghanistan. The civil aviation minister, Mullah Akthar Mohammed Mansur, said if Britain returned the hijackers to Afghanistan they would receive at least seven years in jail but not the death sentence because they had not killed anybody. However, General Rahmatullah Safi, Taleban's European representative, said that if Taleban courts try the hijackers they will face Islamic law's death sentence.