Taliban says they wish the militant group had hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 but they did not.Reuters file photo
The Islamic militant group Pakistan Taliban has said it wishes the group had hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 but denied any involvement in the incident.
Admitting the fragmented group does not have the resources to pull off a colossal operation like hijacking the Boeing 777 aircraft, with 239 on board, the militant outfit has said it does not have any knowledge of the incident.
"We wish we had an opportunity to hijack such a plane," a senior militant of the Pakistan-based outfit, which is fighting the Pakistani administration, told Reuters by telephone.
Similarly, the Afghan wing of the insurgent outfit has said they do not have any hand in the mysterious disappearance of the jetliner.
"It happened outside Afghanistan and you can see that even countries with very advanced equipment and facilities cannot figure out where it went. We also do not have any information as it is an external issue," said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for Afghan Taliban.
The remarks from the outfits follow speculation that the aircraft could have been hijacked by one of the terrorist groups in order to use the aircraft for an attack at a later date.
The Independent earlier reported that Malaysian authorities were pursuing diplomatic efforts to investigate whether the vanished aircraft, after turning off its communications systems, deliberately flew via the Taliban strongholds on the Afghan border in North-West Pakistan.
Intelligence officials, however, dismissed picking up any such chatter among the extremist outfits, terming the possibility as unlikely.
Meanwhile, Malaysian authorities have also denied reports that they have not given adequate cooperation to US authorities, including the FBI.
FLIGHT MH370 FACTBOX
Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing at 00:41 on Saturday 8 March (16:41 GMT Friday).
About 50 minutes later, the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control.
No distress call was made.
On board, there were 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 14 countries. That included 153 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.
Two Iranian male passengers, Pouria Nour Mohammad Mahread and Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza, were travelling on fake passports. Neither had any apparent links to terrorist groups.
No debris from the plane has been found in the international search.
Last confirmed communication with Indian Ocean satellite occurred at 08:11am, meaning plane continued to fly for seven hours after radar signal was lost.
At least 25 countries, including China, the US and Singapore, have now joined in the search for the missing plane.
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