Hijackers of an Indian Airlines aircraft temporarily released an ill passenger for treatment yesterday, as extra Taliban militiamen encircled the craft, which has been at Kandahar Airport in southern Afghanistan for almost a week.
The freed passenger, the second to be let out after the aircraft landed at Kandahar, was an Indian in his 30s.
A Taliban official said the man, suffering from a form of stomach cancer, took ill and after receiving treatment at the local army hospital was returned to the aircraft two hours later.
The Taliban surrounded the jet, armed with assault rifles. They also had an armoured personnel carrier, a truck carrying a US-made Stinger anti-aircraft missile and another truck with a rocket-launcher.
This raised speculation that the Taliban might be readying itself to end the siege by force, even as Indian officials continued negotiating with the Kashmiri hijackers over the release of 36 jailed separatists.
The Taliban Foreign Minister, Mr Abdul Wakil Muttawakil, said the deployment at the Kandahar airfield was purely for security reasons and that they were not planning any operation.
But he said his patience with the stand-off was wearing thin. "If the two sides are unable to solve their problems soon, the Taliban will force the hijackers to leave Afghanistan," he said.
Reports from Kandahar said the Taliban's Majlis or Supreme Council was firm on the issue being resolved within the next two days.
"The Taliban are asking India to become focused and end the hostage drama," said retired Lieut Gen V.R. Raghavan, a leading security analyst.
The Taliban initially refused to become involved in the crisis, asking India and the United Nations to defuse it, but interceded following repeated requests from New Delhi.
The Taliban managed to persuade the hijackers earlier this week that demanding a ransom of $200 million and the exhumation of the body of a Muslim militant shot dead by Indian security forces in a jail break attempt was un-Islamic.
Reports from Kandahar said Indian negotiators had indicated a willingness to release some militants in exchange for the passengers, but no official in New Delhi was willing to confirm this for fear of compromising negotiations. Mr Muttawakil said India was haggling over how many Kashmiri militants would be freed to prevent the hijackers from carrying out their threat and killing all the passengers.
The captors killed one passenger before the aircraft reached Afghanistan on Saturday, report edly for peeking at them from under his blindfold. Mr Rupen Katyal was brutally stabbed on his way back from his honeymoon. His wife remains a hostage.
Wednesday night's negotiations, which broke down early yesterday morning, were resumed via radio from the Kandahar control tower around noon, but were not close to being resolved as the militants refused to budge on their demands.
The hijackers seized Flight 814 shortly after it left Kathmandu on Christmas Eve, and after stops in northern India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates it arrived in Kandahar.
Twenty-seven hostages were freed and Mr Katyal's body was unloaded at Dubai while Mr Anil Khurana, a diabetic Indian, was released at the weekend and rushed to hospital in neighbouring Pakistan. Mr Khurana returned to Delhi late last night.
Security officials privately admit that India would have to concede some of the militants' demands to defuse the crisis without bloodshed.
The alleged terrorist, Mr Osama bin Laden, left Kandahar shortly after the hijacked Indian plane landed there on Christmas Day, a Pakistani newspaper reported yesterday.
