Pakistan has dismissed India's demand for the extradition of five hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane, insisting it had no involvement in the affair.

The statement by the Pakistan foreign office came after India made the first official diplomatic demand for the hijackers.

The Pakistani High Commissioner to India, Ashraf Jehangir, had been summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi and told that his country had a legal obligation to extradite the hijackers and their accomplices to India.

Islamabad has always denied that the hijackers are in Pakistan.

"India continues to make allegations which are unfounded and not supported by even a shred of credible evidence, " the Pakistan foreign office statement said.

The authorities in Pakistan have said that they will arrest and try the hijackers if they enter the country. Islamabad has also denied India's allegation that it masterminded the hijack.

The hostages' eight-day ordeal in December ended with the release of all 155 remaining passengers at Kandahar airport in Afghanistan, after India released three Kashmiri militants from prison. One passenger was killed during the hijacking.

The five hijackers have not been seen since they disappeared into the Afghan desert on 31 December following the militants-for-hostages swap.

'Fight goes on'

A Pakistani cleric who was one of the three militants freed by Delhi earlier this week vowed to continue fighting Indian forces in Kashmir.

Maulana Masood Azhar told a rally at his home town of Bhawalpur in Pakistan that he would recruit half a million men to fight in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The cleric also told a Pakistani newspaper that he believed the hijackers were in Pakistan.

He also said that they were Indian, rather than Pakistani as is widely assumed. He said that the responsibility for the death of one of the passengers lay with Delhi.