Radical Myanmar Students Hijack Plane : Asia: They call for an end to military rule in their nation. The incident ends peacefully with their surrender in India.

Two students from Myanmar carrying a fake bomb made out of soap hijacked a Thai jetliner to Calcutta on Saturday to dramatize demands for an end to military rule in their country.

All of the 219 other passengers and crew aboard the plane were released gradually over a six-hour period before the hijackers gave themselves up to Indian police. The passengers reportedly included 32 Americans. No one was hurt, police said.

The Thai Airways Airbus 300 was hijacked during a flight from Bangkok to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, formerly Burma.

Officials said the passengers were released after the government promised the hijackers that arrangements would be made to let them hold a news conference. The hijackers also requested political asylum, the officials said.

At their news conference, the two students said they were unarmed and carried only a fake bomb made out of bars of soap with protruding wires. A third Myanmar student was supposed to participate in the hijacking, but the trio ran low on money in Bangkok and could afford only two plane tickets, they said.

The two, who identified themselves as Ye Marn, 24, and Ye Htink Yaw, 22, were taken into police custody.

Indian police said charges were being considered but had not been filed yet.

The students said they only wanted to win greater publicity for pro-democracy activists struggling against Myanmar’s military rulers, who have refused to turn over power to civilian leaders elected in May. The hijacking occurred while a U.N. official was in Myanmar to investigate human rights abuses.

“We have no desire to kill people,” Ye Marn said. “Our bomb was soap.”

Officials said the passengers on board the hijacked flight were of more than 22 nationalities, most of them from Japan, Myanmar and the United States. According to a Thai Airways International manifest of the flight, seen at the Bangkok airport, there were 32 Americans on board.

Freed passengers described the blue jeans-clad youths as gentle hijackers.

“These young men did not misbehave with us,” said Hiromu Tsuchiguchi, 42, a travel agent from Osaka, Japan.

“There was a little tension at the beginning,” said John Cogan, 46, a lawyer from Houston. “The hijackers moved women and children to the front and the men to the back of the plane. When people moved, the hijacker would threaten to push the button (on the fake bomb). But he repeated several times that he meant no harm.”

Indian officials initially said there were three hijackers, because a communique from the hijackers had three signatures and was stamped in blood with three thumbprints. The communique was released with some of the first passengers to be freed, who said the hijackers had hand grenades and guns.

Ye Marn told the news conference: “We wanted to draw international attention and international support for our human rights and democracy (campaign). Our mission has been fulfilled.”

Myanmar’s military government crushed a pro-democracy movement two years ago and continues to detain large numbers of people for political reasons.