Hijackers demand $200m

Hijackers of the Indian Airlines jetliner have demanded the release of 35 guerrillas and a ransom of $200 million. India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters that the hijackers want the money before freeing 155 passengers being held hostage for a fifth day Tuesday, United News of India news agency said.

Hijackers of the Indian Airlines jetliner have demanded the release of 35 guerrillas and a ransom of $200 million. India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters that the hijackers want the money before freeing 155 passengers being held hostage for a fifth day Tuesday, United News of India news agency said.

Mr Singh said "let the international community and the nation understand the demands," UNI reported. It was not immediately clear when the new demand was made.

Hijackers also have demanded the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani cleric now in an Indian jail, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

"We will send an appropriate response through our negotiating team," Singh said after a meeting of the council of government ministers.

The hijackers also have demanded that the body of Sajjad Afghani, a former leader of the Harkat-ul-Ansar rebel group, be exhumed from a grave in India-held Kashmir, PTI said.

Afghani was arrested in 1994 and killed when guerrillas made an abortive bid to escape from the Kot Balwal jail in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.