The PM presided over the meeting of the crisis management group set up by the Centre to deal with the hijacking. The meeting attended by senior Cabinet members LK Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan and Sharad Yadav, is taking place at the Prime Minister's residence at 7, Race Course Road.

External affairs ministry is in touch with the Pakistani government through Islamabad's high commissioner here.

The pilot of the aircraft, Capt D Saran, informed the control tower that the hijackers were armed with pistols and hand grenades. ``The hijackers obviously belong to a terrorist outfit,'' Prime Minister's principal secretary Brajesh Mishra told newsmen.

Of the passengers, 154 are Indians and 24 foreigners, including eight Nepalese, four each Swiss and Spanish, and one each Canadian and Belgian.There are 106 men, 57 women, 11 children and four infants on board the plane. Of the 11-member crew, eight are air hostesses.

The hijackers have been demanding refuelling, medical assistance and water at the Lahore airport. ``We cannot stop these things (medical assistance, water). They are being granted. But I do not know about refuelling,'' said Gupta.

The hijackers have not given a destination, said Lahore airport officials. The Pakistani military officials have sealed off the airport.

Asked about identity of the hijackers, Gupta said, ``this has not been established as yet. Most of the conversation with them has been through the pilot.''

Pakistani authorities, which had earlier refused permission to the aircraft to land at Lahore airport forcing it to fly to Amritsar as it was short on fuel, permitted the plane to land on its second attempt after Indian authorities requested them to let the aircraft land.

The hijackers have been insisting on landing at Lahore as they did not want to stay in India.

The plane was parked near the Haj terminal at the southern end of Lahore airport, which is used by Moslems making their annual pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Witnesses said ambulances and firetrucks were rushed to the area and that lights at the airport, which was earlier taken over by the military, had been turned off. There was no word on the safety of the passengers.The plane was forced to land at Amritsar earlier in the evening as it was running out of fuel.

This was confirmed in New Delhi by Gupta who also stated that the plane had taken off thereafter with only a few minutes of fuel in it.

Most officials have put the number of hijackers at five but others said there were seven of them. Nothing was immediately known about their identity or their demands.

The aircraft took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 4.25 pm and scheduled to land at Delhi around 5.25 pm instead of 3.10 pm, air traffic control sources said. Airport sources said the flight was delayed and left Kathmandu over two hours behind schedule.

Giving details, civil aviation minister Sharad Yadav said the plane was seized at 4.55 pm while descending to land at Lucknow.

As the oil tanker was proceeding towards the plane for refuelling at the Amritsar airport, the pilot was asked by the control tower to move the aicraft closer to the tanker. At this the hijackers opened fire, killing four passengers, said Yadav.

The Airport Authority has set up a special control room at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here to provide information about the passengers in the hijacked plane. The telephone numbers of the control room are 5655110 and 5652173. Indian Airlines has set up a special cell at Mumbai. The telephone number is 6156367.