SPECIAL branch officers are probing a Bolton link to the hijacking of an Indian Airline plane.

The dramatic news comes a week into the plane siege - making it the sixth-longest plane hijacking of its kind - in which 160 hostages are being held.

Today it was reported that British intelligence officers have been called in to investigate a mobile phone call made to a Bolton woman just two days before the Christmas Eve hijack.

The woman is said to to be a close associate of a leading fundraiser for a Kashmir separatist group linked to the hijackers.

It is understood that an analysis of telephone calls from India to Kathmandu, where the hijackers boarded the plane, showed the caller, who is linked to a Bombay criminal gang, telephoned Nepal and Bolton.

After the Airbus A300 was commandeered on a flight from Nepal to New Delhi the hijackers demanded £125 million and the return of the body of a militant who was killed this year.

They have since been forced to drop these two key demands but still want the release of 35 militants and an Islamic cleric from Indian jails.

The plane currently stands on Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan.

Today the number of guards had been increased, prompting denials that the plane was about to be stormed.

The hijackers, thought to be Kashmiri separatists, killed one hostage on Saturday but have failed to carry through threats to kill other people.

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