NEW DELHI, India — As freed hostages recovered from their eight-day hijacking nightmare, India's foreign minister said that their captors had wired their jet to explode and possibly kept extra weapons in the cargo hold.
Despite a joyful and relieved welcome for the 155 passengers and crew from the hijacked Indian Airlines jet, some predicted that India would pay a heavy price for swapping the release of three Muslim militants for their freedom.
After receiving the three militants Friday, the hijackers fled the airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where they had been holding the plane, and disappeared into the desert. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia said they had left the country.
Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said the five hijackers were Pakistanis. The identity of the hijackers — who wore masks — has not been clear, and Singh did not specify how he knew they were Pakistani.
Singh also said the five hijackers had crossed into southwestern Pakistan to the town of Quetta, citing information he said he received from a Taliban official. The Taliban have not announced publicly which country the hijackers fled to. There was no immediate reaction to the allegations from Pakistan.
Freed crew members said the plane had been wired with enough explosives to blow it up, Singh said.
A pilot who flew the hijacked plane back to India said on television that departure was delayed "because there were explosives on board." But the hijacked plane's captain, Devi Sharan, told The Associated Press he did not know about any explosives.
The hijackers may have also had AK47 automatic rifles, pistols and grenades hidden in the cargo hold "from the beginning," he said. On Dec. 26, two days into the seizure, the hijackers got access to the cargo and suddenly appeared with more sophisticated weapons, Singh said.
With joy and tears, the freed hostages were welcomed back Friday evening by a huge crowd of relatives, friends and well-wishers at New Delhi's international airport.
"It was very suffocating inside. I feel great to be able to look at the sun again," said Himanshu Sharma, 12, who was held hostage with his parents and 9-year-old brother.
The only American hostage, Jeanne Moore of Bakersfield, Calif., was in good health, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Corwin.
"We were scared a lot — we never knew what was going to happen to us," Moore, a special education teacher, was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times. "It was a very interesting study in people."
Moore's son, Jim, a Bakersfield police officer, left for India on Friday upon news of his mother's release.
Kanwar Thukral, who had a childhood friend on board the flight, said he had mixed feelings about the Indian government's decision to swap the militants for the hostages' release.
"I think releasing these prisoners will give a boost to the militant movement. It will be a crutch for the militants. They know now they can always hold the government hostage," Thukral said. "I guess the government had only one option. But I still wish the militants had not been released."