A military jet from the US-led coalition forced an Afghan plane carrying Haj pilgrims to land in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, but suspicions that it had been hijacked turned out to be wrong, the Afghan government said. A UAE official, who declined to be identified, said there was no sign of any hijack attempt when authorities investigated an Ariana Afghan Airlines plane that landed at a military base following information that it may have been taken over. ‘‘There was no sign of any hijack attempt,’’ the official said. ‘‘As a precautionary measure, another plane at Sharjah airport was also searched and nothing was found,’’ he added. There were no arrests, the official said. Afghanistan’s Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mirwais Sadiq Mirwais Sadiq said a jet from US-led coalition forces had followed the plane and forced it to land. ‘‘Coalition forces had doubts about the plane..as if they had a report that a hijacker was inside the plane,’’ he said, adding that the plane had been cleared to continue its flight to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Sadiq had earlier said the plane was hijacked and at least one man was arrested. ‘‘An attempt to hijack the plane was foiled,’’ he had said.
